diff --git a/zanata-war/src/main/java/org/zanata/email/EmailBuilder.java b/zanata-war/src/main/java/org/zanata/email/EmailBuilder.java
index a02df72eab..9c77610614 100644
--- a/zanata-war/src/main/java/org/zanata/email/EmailBuilder.java
+++ b/zanata-war/src/main/java/org/zanata/email/EmailBuilder.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 import org.apache.velocity.VelocityContext;
 import org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine;
 import org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeConstants;
+import org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.CommonsLogLogChute;
 import org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.ClasspathResourceLoader;
 import org.jboss.seam.annotations.AutoCreate;
 import org.jboss.seam.annotations.In;
@@ -71,6 +72,11 @@ private static VelocityEngine makeVelocityEngine() {
         ve.setProperty(RuntimeConstants.RESOURCE_LOADER, "classpath");
         ve.setProperty("classpath.resource.loader.class",
                 ClasspathResourceLoader.class.getName());
+
+        // send Velocity log to SLF4J (via Commons Logging)
+        ve.setProperty(VelocityEngine.RUNTIME_LOG_LOGSYSTEM_CLASS,
+                CommonsLogLogChute.class.getName());
+
         // this allows unit tests to detect missing context vars:
         ve.setProperty("runtime.references.strict", true);
         ve.init();