diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e50f7237b..b921534cc 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -88,12 +88,12 @@ RUN mkdir -p /root/render-lib && \
 FROM jetty:10.0.13-jre11 as render-ws
 
 # add packages not included in base image:
-#   curl and coreutils are always needed for gnu readlink
+#   curl and coreutils are always needed for gnu readlink, tzdata is needed to set timezone
 #   other packages can be added from build command (e.g. docker build ... --build-arg EXTRA_JETTY_PACKAGES=vim )
 ARG EXTRA_JETTY_PACKAGES
 
 USER root
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl coreutils $EXTRA_JETTY_PACKAGES
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl coreutils tzdata $EXTRA_JETTY_PACKAGES
 
 WORKDIR $JETTY_BASE
 
diff --git a/render-ws/src/main/scripts/docker-compose/render-ws.env b/render-ws/src/main/scripts/docker-compose/render-ws.env
index 67290bf6e..571e29314 100644
--- a/render-ws/src/main/scripts/docker-compose/render-ws.env
+++ b/render-ws/src/main/scripts/docker-compose/render-ws.env
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 # NOTE: don't use quotes around values - details here:
 #       https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/run/#set-environment-variables--e---env---env-file
 
+# ---------------------------------
+# Switch containers to local time zone (otherwise log times will be GMT)
+# - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
+TZ=America/New_York
+
 # ---------------------------------
 # Database Connection Parameters