diff --git a/charts/common/templates/_telemetry.tpl b/charts/common/templates/_telemetry.tpl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..682dd38c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/charts/common/templates/_telemetry.tpl
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+{{- define "common.telemetry.env" -}}
+  {{- $env := dict -}}
+  {{- $config := dig "telemetry" .protocol (dict) .global -}}
+  {{- if eq .protocol "otlp" -}}
+    {{- $enabled := false -}}
+    {{- $endpoint := "" -}}
+    {{- $insecure := dig "insecure" true $config -}}
+    {{- $serviceProtocol := "" -}}
+    {{- if eq (dig "endpoint" "auto" $config) "auto" -}}
+      {{- $services := (dict "monitoring" (list "open-telemetry-collector-opentelemetry-collector")) -}}
+      {{- range $namespace, $serviceNames := $services -}}
+        {{- range $serviceName := $serviceNames -}}
+          {{- $service := lookup "v1" "Service" $namespace $serviceName -}}
+          {{- if $service -}}
+            {{- $servicePort := 0 -}}
+            {{- range $portSpec := dig "spec" "ports" (list) $service -}}
+              {{- if eq (dig "name" "" $portSpec) "otlp" -}}
+                {{- $servicePort = dig "port" 0 $portSpec -}}
+                {{- $appProtocol := dig "appProtocol" "" $portSpec -}}
+                {{/* see https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/protocol/exporter/ */}}
+                {{- if has $appProtocol (list "grpc" "http/protobuf" "http/json") -}}
+                  {{- $serviceProtocol = $appProtocol -}}
+                {{- end -}}
+                {{- if $servicePort -}}
+                  {{- break -}}
+                {{- end -}}
+              {{- end -}}
+            {{- end -}}
+            {{- $enabled = true -}}
+            {{- $endpoint = printf "%s.%s:%d" $serviceName $namespace $servicePort -}}
+            {{- break -}}
+          {{- end -}}
+        {{- end -}}
+        {{- if $enabled -}}
+          {{- break -}}
+        {{- end -}}
+      {{- end -}}
+    {{- else -}}
+      {{- $enabled = true -}}
+      {{- $endpoint = $config.endpoint -}}
+    {{- end -}}
+    {{- if $enabled -}}
+      {{- /* no METRICS for now, prometheus discourages the usage of remote-write, see https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#remote-write-receiver */ -}}
+      {{- /* no LOGS for now, loki is running anyways, so we'd even have to deduplicate the logs somehow */ -}}
+
+      {{- range $signal := list "TRACES" -}}
+        {{- if not (hasPrefix "http" $endpoint)}}
+          {{- $env = set $env (printf "OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_%s_INSECURE" $signal) $insecure -}}
+        {{- end -}}
+        {{- if $serviceProtocol -}}
+          {{- $env = set $env (printf "OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_%s_PROTOCOL" $signal) $serviceProtocol -}}
+        {{- end -}}
+        {{- $env = set $env (printf "OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_%s_ENDPOINT" $signal) $endpoint -}}
+      {{- end -}}
+    {{- end -}}
+  {{- else -}}
+    {{- fail "unsupported telemetry protocol" -}}
+  {{- end -}}
+  {{- if $env -}}
+    {{- $podEnv := list -}}
+    {{- range $key, $value := $env -}}
+      {{- $podEnv = append $podEnv (dict "name" $key "value" ($value | toString)) -}}
+    {{- end -}}
+    {{- $podEnv | toYaml -}}
+  {{- end -}}
+{{- end -}}