diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ede62f6..784ce91 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -83,8 +83,10 @@ $(QLDIR)/local-projects/esrap:
 $(QLDIR)/setup.lisp:
 	mkdir -p $(BUILDDIR)
 	curl -o $(BUILDDIR)/quicklisp.lisp http://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp
-	$(CL) $(CL_OPTS) --load $(BUILDDIR)/quicklisp.lisp                         \
-             --eval '(quicklisp-quickstart:install :path "$(BUILDDIR)/quicklisp")' \
+	$(CL) $(CL_OPTS) --load $(BUILDDIR)/quicklisp.lisp                        \
+             --load src/getenv.lisp                                               \
+             --eval '(quicklisp-quickstart:install :path "$(BUILDDIR)/quicklisp"  \
+                                                   :proxy (getenv "http_proxy"))' \
              --eval '(quit)'
 
 quicklisp: $(QLDIR)/setup.lisp ;
diff --git a/src/getenv.lisp b/src/getenv.lisp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcb7987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/getenv.lisp
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+;;;
+;;; Export a getenv feature so that we can fetch http_proxy at build time.
+;;;
+;;; We can't rely on Quicklisp to have installed a modern ASDF with UIOP yet
+;;; here: we need the feature to pass in the :proxy argument to
+;;; quicklisp-quickstart:install.
+;;;
+
+(in-package :cl-user)
+
+(defun getenv (name &optional default)
+  "Return the current value for the environment variable NAME, or default
+   when unset."
+  (or #+sbcl (sb-ext:posix-getenv name)
+      #+ccl (ccl:getenv name)
+      default))