diff --git a/include/spdk/event.h b/include/spdk/event.h
index 0260cc215..6164b3b1f 100644
--- a/include/spdk/event.h
+++ b/include/spdk/event.h
@@ -129,6 +129,9 @@ struct spdk_app_opts {
 
 	/* Number of trace entries allocated for each core */
 	uint64_t		num_entries;
+
+	/** Opaque context for use of the env implementation. */
+	void			*env_context;
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/lib/event/app.c b/lib/event/app.c
index 5ebac602a..97fe117ac 100644
--- a/lib/event/app.c
+++ b/lib/event/app.c
@@ -507,6 +507,7 @@ spdk_app_setup_env(struct spdk_app_opts *opts)
 	env_opts.num_pci_addr = opts->num_pci_addr;
 	env_opts.pci_blacklist = opts->pci_blacklist;
 	env_opts.pci_whitelist = opts->pci_whitelist;
+	env_opts.env_context = opts->env_context;
 
 	rc = spdk_env_init(&env_opts);
 	free(env_opts.pci_blacklist);