diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 08f8764..16f6f91 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ cache: pip
 python:
 - '3.6'
 install:
+- pip install --upgrade pip
 - pip install -r requirements.dev.txt
+- pip install --upgrade pytest
 - pip install coveralls
 - pip install -e .
 script: APP_SECRET_KEY=a pytest
diff --git a/pygameweb/__init__.py b/pygameweb/__init__.py
index a2d55b5..e7cd19c 100644
--- a/pygameweb/__init__.py
+++ b/pygameweb/__init__.py
@@ -3,29 +3,6 @@
 
 # So we can use environment variables to configure things.
 
-def load_into_environ(fname):
-    """ load the key value pairs in fname into the os.environ.
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
+load_dotenv()
 
-    Each line should have a key=value pair.
-    There can be comments with #.
-
-    :param fname: name of the '.env' file.
-    """
-    import os
-
-    def as_key_value(lines):
-        """ Return a dict of the key value pairs.
-        """
-        no_comments = [l.split('#')[0].rstrip() for l in lines if not l.startswith('#')]
-        no_empty = [l for l in no_comments if l]
-        kvs = [l.split('=') for l in no_empty]
-        no_extra_spaces = [(k.rstrip().lstrip(), v.rstrip().lstrip()) for k, v in kvs]
-        return no_extra_spaces
-
-    if os.path.exists(fname):
-        with open(fname) as lines:
-            for key, value in as_key_value(lines):
-                if key not in os.environ:
-                    os.environ[key] = value
-
-load_into_environ('.env')
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 9915923..761d79b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ ghdiff
 numpy
 pandas
 psycopg2
+python-dotenv
 pyquery
 pygments
 pq