diff --git a/.example-env b/.example-env
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3e8752fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.example-env
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+RAILS_ENV=development
+
+AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
+BUNDLE_GEMFILE
+SMTP_DOMAIN
+SMTP_PASSWORD
+SMTP_PORT
+SMTP_SERVER
+SMTP_USERNAME
+SSO_KEY
+
+## find the ENV currently in use in the app using : 
+##   grep -rIso -P "(?<=ENV)(\.fetch\(|\[).[A-Z_]+.(\)|\])" 
+
+# for a uniq ordered list of env vars:
+##   grep -rIsoh -P "(?<=ENV)(\.fetch\(|\[).[A-Z_]+.(\)|\])" | grep -oP "[A-Z_]+" | sort -u > temp 
+
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d1889d2c..75aa3c26 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 realtime/node_modules
 config/database.yml
+.env
 #public/assets
 
 # Ignore bundler config
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 7649f497..7b39be5e 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ gem 'rails3-jquery-autocomplete'
 gem 'best_in_place' #in-place editing
 gem 'kaminari' # pagination
 gem 'uservoice-ruby'
+gem 'dotenv'
 
 gem 'paperclip'
 gem 'aws-sdk'
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 0c82cb5a..16ea23f3 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ GEM
       responders
       thread_safe (~> 0.1)
       warden (~> 1.2.3)
+    dotenv (2.0.0)
     erubis (2.7.0)
     execjs (2.6.0)
     ezcrypto (0.7.2)
@@ -198,6 +199,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   cancancan
   coffee-rails
   devise
+  dotenv
   formtastic
   formula
   jbuilder