diff --git a/adapters/syslog/syslog.go b/adapters/syslog/syslog.go
index 95e03d1d..2473537f 100644
--- a/adapters/syslog/syslog.go
+++ b/adapters/syslog/syslog.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"log/syslog"
 	"net"
 	"os"
+	"strings"
 	"text/template"
 	"time"
 
@@ -29,6 +30,16 @@ func getopt(name, dfault string) string {
 	return value
 }
 
+func tplGetEnvVar(env []string, key string) string {
+        key_equals := key + "="
+        for _, value := range env {
+                if strings.HasPrefix(value, key_equals)  {
+                        return value[length(key_equals)+1:]
+                }
+        }
+        return ""
+}
+
 func NewSyslogAdapter(route *router.Route) (router.LogAdapter, error) {
 	transport, found := router.AdapterTransports.Lookup(route.AdapterTransport("udp"))
 	if !found {
@@ -67,7 +78,10 @@ func NewSyslogAdapter(route *router.Route) (router.LogAdapter, error) {
 	default:
 		return nil, errors.New("unsupported syslog format: " + format)
 	}
-	tmpl, err := template.New("syslog").Parse(tmplStr)
+
+	funcMap := template.FuncMap{
+		"getEnvVar":   tplGetEnvVar}
+	tmpl, err := template.New("syslog").Funcs(funcMap).Parse(tmplStr)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}