diff --git a/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/default.nix b/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/default.nix
index 1b4d967af55..ada2ed997da 100644
--- a/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/default.nix
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       cp tzfile.h "$dev/include/tzfile.h"
     '';
 
+  setupHook = ./tzdata-setup-hook.sh;
+
   meta = {
     homepage = http://www.iana.org/time-zones;
     description = "Database of current and historical time zones";
diff --git a/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/tzdata-setup-hook.sh b/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/tzdata-setup-hook.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9ae9b46d85c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/data/misc/tzdata/tzdata-setup-hook.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+tzdataHook() {
+    export TZDIR=@out@/share/zoneinfo
+}
+
+envHooks+=(tzdataHook)
+crossEnvHooks+=(tzdataHook)