diff --git a/binderhub/build.py b/binderhub/build.py
index f26cc4ba2..ced7a07f3 100644
--- a/binderhub/build.py
+++ b/binderhub/build.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import json
 import threading
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
+import os
 
 from kubernetes import client, watch
 from tornado.ioloop import IOLoop
@@ -235,6 +236,24 @@ def submit(self):
         if self.git_credentials:
             env.append(client.V1EnvVar(name='GIT_CREDENTIAL_ENV', value=self.git_credentials))
 
+        # copy additional variables from current environment to new pod environment
+        proxy_environment_variables = [
+            'http_proxy',
+            'https_proxy',
+            'HTTP_PROXY',
+            'HTTPS_PROXY',
+            'no_proxy',
+            'NO_PROXY',
+        ]
+
+        for env_var in proxy_environment_variables:
+            try:
+                env.append(client.V1EnvVar(name=env_var, value=os.environ[env_var]))
+            except KeyError:
+                # skip the environment variable if it isn't present
+                pass
+
+        component_label = "binderhub-build"
         self.pod = client.V1Pod(
             metadata=client.V1ObjectMeta(
                 name=self.name,
diff --git a/binderhub/main.py b/binderhub/main.py
index de1a1a711..0a95eedbe 100644
--- a/binderhub/main.py
+++ b/binderhub/main.py
@@ -3,12 +3,13 @@
 """
 import urllib.parse
 
-from tornado.httpclient import AsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest
+from tornado.httpclient import HTTPRequest
 from tornado.web import HTTPError, authenticated
 from tornado.httputil import url_concat
 from tornado.log import app_log
 
 from .base import BaseHandler
+from .utils import ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient
 
 SPEC_NAMES = {
     "gh": "GitHub",
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@ async def get(self, provider_prefix, _unescaped_spec):
 
             # Check if the nbviewer URL is valid and would display something
             # useful to the reader, if not we don't show it
-            client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+            client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
             # quote any unicode characters in the URL
             proto, rest = nbviewer_url.split("://")
             rest = urllib.parse.quote(rest)
diff --git a/binderhub/registry.py b/binderhub/registry.py
index 8891041b2..de6521da6 100644
--- a/binderhub/registry.py
+++ b/binderhub/registry.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 from traitlets.config import LoggingConfigurable
 from traitlets import Dict, Unicode, default
 
+from .utils import ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient
+
 DEFAULT_DOCKER_REGISTRY_URL = "https://registry.hub.docker.com"
 DEFAULT_DOCKER_AUTH_URL = "https://index.docker.io/v1"
 
@@ -187,7 +189,7 @@ def _default_password(self):
 
     @gen.coroutine
     def get_image_manifest(self, image, tag):
-        client = httpclient.AsyncHTTPClient()
+        client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
         url = "{}/v2/{}/manifests/{}".format(self.url, image, tag)
         # first, get a token to perform the manifest request
         if self.token_url:
diff --git a/binderhub/repoproviders.py b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
index 3b0ae53a9..b086121dd 100644
--- a/binderhub/repoproviders.py
+++ b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@
 from prometheus_client import Gauge
 
 from tornado import gen
-from tornado.httpclient import AsyncHTTPClient, HTTPError, HTTPRequest
+from tornado.httpclient import HTTPError, HTTPRequest
 from tornado.httputil import url_concat
 
 from traitlets import Dict, Unicode, Bool, default, List, observe
 from traitlets.config import LoggingConfigurable
 
 from .utils import Cache
+from .utils import ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient
 
 GITHUB_RATE_LIMIT = Gauge('binderhub_github_rate_limit_remaining', 'GitHub rate limit remaining')
 SHA1_PATTERN = re.compile(r'[0-9a-f]{40}')
@@ -217,7 +218,7 @@ class ZenodoProvider(RepoProvider):
 
     @gen.coroutine
     def get_resolved_ref(self):
-        client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+        client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
         req = HTTPRequest("https://doi.org/{}".format(self.spec),
                           user_agent="BinderHub")
         r = yield client.fetch(req)
@@ -257,7 +258,7 @@ class FigshareProvider(RepoProvider):
 
     @gen.coroutine
     def get_resolved_ref(self):
-        client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+        client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
         req = HTTPRequest("https://doi.org/{}".format(self.spec),
                           user_agent="BinderHub")
         r = yield client.fetch(req)
@@ -439,7 +440,7 @@ def get_resolved_ref(self):
             return self.resolved_ref
 
         namespace = urllib.parse.quote(self.namespace, safe='')
-        client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+        client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
         api_url = "https://{hostname}/api/v4/projects/{namespace}/repository/commits/{ref}".format(
             hostname=self.hostname,
             namespace=namespace,
@@ -582,7 +583,7 @@ async def get_resolved_ref_url(self):
 
     @gen.coroutine
     def github_api_request(self, api_url, etag=None):
-        client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+        client = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient()
         if self.auth:
             # Add auth params. After logging!
             api_url = url_concat(api_url, self.auth)
diff --git a/binderhub/utils.py b/binderhub/utils.py
index 9b3f7a7fa..3522fbe63 100644
--- a/binderhub/utils.py
+++ b/binderhub/utils.py
@@ -3,6 +3,12 @@
 from hashlib import blake2b
 
 from traitlets import Integer, TraitError
+from tornado.httpclient import AsyncHTTPClient, HTTPRequest, HTTPResponse
+from typing import Any, Union, Awaitable
+from urllib.parse import urlparse
+import ipaddress
+import re
+import os
 
 
 def blake2b_hash_as_int(b):
@@ -113,6 +119,106 @@ def set(self, key, value):
             self.pop(first_key)
 
 
+class ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient():
+    """wrapper for automatic proxy support in tornado's non-blocking HTTP client.
+
+    see tornado.httplib.AsyncHTTPClient for usage/documentation
+    """
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+
+        # use the first found proxy environment variable
+        self.http_proxy_host = None
+        self.http_proxy_port = None
+        for proxy_var in ['HTTPS_PROXY', 'https_proxy', 'HTTP_PROXY', 'http_proxy']:
+            try:
+                parsed_proxy = urlparse(os.environ[proxy_var])
+                self.http_proxy_host = parsed_proxy.hostname
+                proxy_port = parsed_proxy.port
+                if proxy_port:  # can be None
+                    self.http_proxy_port = int(proxy_port)
+                else:
+                    self.http_proxy_port = 443 if parsed_proxy.scheme == 'https' else 80
+                break
+            except KeyError:
+                pass
+
+        # sort no_proxy environment variable into CIDR ranges (e.g. 10.0.0.0/8)
+        # and "simple" matches (e.g. my-institution.org or 10.1.2.3)
+        self.no_proxy_simple = []
+        self.no_proxy_cidr = []
+        no_proxy = None
+        for no_proxy_var in ['NO_PROXY', 'no_proxy']:
+            try:
+                no_proxy = os.environ[no_proxy_var]
+            except KeyError:
+                pass
+        if no_proxy:
+            for no_proxy_part in no_proxy.split(','):
+                if self._is_cidr_range(no_proxy_part):
+                    self.no_proxy_cidr.append(no_proxy_part)
+                else:
+                    self.no_proxy_simple.append(no_proxy_part)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _is_cidr_range(test_string):
+        range_parts = test_string.split('/')
+        if len(range_parts) != 2:
+            return False
+        ip, suffix = range_parts
+        ip_is_valid = ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient._is_ip(ip)
+        suffix_is_valid = bool(re.fullmatch('(?:[0-9]|[12][0-9]|3[0-2])', suffix))
+        return ip_is_valid and suffix_is_valid
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _is_ip(test_string):
+        ip_digit = '(?:1[0-9]?[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])'
+        return bool(re.fullmatch(rf'{ip_digit}\.{ip_digit}\.{ip_digit}\.{ip_digit}', test_string))
+
+    def fetch(
+        self,
+        request: Union[str, "HTTPRequest"],
+        raise_error: bool = True,
+        **kwargs: Any
+    ) -> Awaitable["HTTPResponse"]:
+        """Executes a request, asynchronously returning an `HTTPResponse`.
+
+        see tornado.httpclient.AsyncHTTPClient.fetch for documentation
+        """
+        # convert request argument into HTTPRequest if necessary
+        if isinstance(request, str):
+            request = HTTPRequest(url=request, **kwargs)
+
+        # determine correct proxy host and port
+        parsed_url = urlparse(request.url)
+        if self.http_proxy_host and parsed_url.scheme in ('http', 'https'):
+            bypass_proxy = False
+            url_hostname = str(parsed_url.hostname)
+            if ProxiedAsyncHTTPClient._is_ip(url_hostname):
+                for no_proxy_cidr in self.no_proxy_cidr:
+                    if ipaddress.ip_address(url_hostname) in ipaddress.ip_network(no_proxy_cidr):
+                        bypass_proxy = True
+                        break
+            for no_proxy_simple in self.no_proxy_simple:
+                escaped_no_proxy = re.escape(no_proxy_simple)
+                # try to match as full domain or last part of it
+                # for example: when "my-institution.org" is given as part of no_proxy, try to match
+                # "my-institution.org" and subdomains like "www.my-institution.org"
+                if re.fullmatch(rf'(?:{escaped_no_proxy})|(?:.+\.{escaped_no_proxy})', url_hostname):
+                    bypass_proxy = True
+                    break
+
+            if not bypass_proxy:
+                request.proxy_host = self.http_proxy_host
+                request.proxy_port = self.http_proxy_port
+
+        # pass call on to AsyncHTTPClient's configured implementation
+        return self.client.fetch(request, raise_error)
+
+    def close(self):
+        return self.client.close()
+
+
 def url_path_join(*pieces):
     """Join components of url into a relative url.