diff --git a/scripts/boot.sh b/scripts/boot.sh
index 91ad5256a..17d1e0aa5 100644
--- a/scripts/boot.sh
+++ b/scripts/boot.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 args=("$@")
+
+# lowercase DD_LOG_LEVEL
+DD_LOG_LEVEL=$(echo "$DD_LOG_LEVEL" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
+
 if [ "$DD_EXPERIMENTAL_ENABLE_PROXY" == "true" ]
 then
-  if [ grep -ix "$DD_LOG_LEVEL" <<< "debug" ]
+  if [ "$DD_LOG_LEVEL" == "debug" ]
   then
     echo "[bootstrap] DD_EXPERIMENTAL_ENABLE_PROXY is true"
     echo "[bootstrap] original AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API value is $AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API"
@@ -10,7 +14,7 @@ then
 
   export AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API="127.0.0.1:9000"
 
-  if [ grep -ix "$DD_LOG_LEVEL" <<< "debug" ]
+  if [ "$DD_LOG_LEVEL" == "debug" ]
   then
     echo "[bootstrap] rerouting AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API to $AWS_LAMBDA_RUNTIME_API"
   fi