diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index acb6bcd..5cdff3c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 .idea/
 **/__pycache__/
+**/.env*
diff --git a/api-client/eg.py b/api-client/eg.py
index b07c1ac..e5d38cf 100644
--- a/api-client/eg.py
+++ b/api-client/eg.py
@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
 from requests_oauthlib import OAuth2Session
 from oauthlib.oauth2 import BackendApplicationClient
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
+import os
 
+environment_name = os.getenv('ENV_NAME', 'qa')  # need to find a place for this
+dotenv_path = f'.env.{environment_name}'
+load_dotenv(dotenv_path)
+
+client_id = os.getenv('CLIENT_ID')
+client_secret = os.getenv('CLIENT_SECRET')
+token_url = os.getenv('TOKEN_URL')
+username = os.getenv('USERNAME')
+password = os.getenv('PASSWORD')
+audience = os.getenv('AUDIENCE')
+scope = os.getenv('SCOPE', '').split(',')
 
 def get_token(client_id, client_secret, token_url, username, password, audience, scope):
     client = BackendApplicationClient(client_id=client_id)
diff --git a/env_template b/env_template
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b76f9c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/env_template
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+URL=https://api.dummy.com
+CLIENT_ID=client_id
+CLIENT_SECRET=client_secret
+TOKEN_URL=oauth_token_fetch_url
+USERNAME=username
+PASSWORD=password
+AUDIENCE=intended_audience
+SCOPES=scope1,scope2
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index a2003b5..d0d9acd 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 oauthlib~=3.2.2
 requests~=2.32.3
-requests-oauthlib~=2.0.0
\ No newline at end of file
+requests-oauthlib~=2.0.0
+python-dotenv~=1.0.1
\ No newline at end of file