diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 27f44f893f..660579657b 100755
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -193,8 +193,8 @@ termcap = get_termcap(GetOption('use_colors'))
 
 # export TERM so that clang reports errors in color
 use_vars = set([ 'AS', 'AR', 'CC', 'CXX', 'HOME', 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH',
-                 'LIBRARY_PATH', 'PATH', 'PKG_CONFIG_PATH', 'PYTHONPATH',
-                 'RANLIB', 'SWIG', 'TERM' ])
+                 'LIBRARY_PATH', 'PATH', 'PKG_CONFIG_PATH', 'PROTOC',
+                 'PYTHONPATH', 'RANLIB', 'SWIG', 'TERM' ])
 
 use_prefixes = [
     "M5",           # M5 configuration (e.g., path to kernels)