diff --git a/platformio/commands/run/processor.py b/platformio/commands/run/processor.py
index 35150c25..2fbba4be 100644
--- a/platformio/commands/run/processor.py
+++ b/platformio/commands/run/processor.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class EnvironmentProcessor(object):
             self, cmd_ctx, name, config, targets, upload_port, silent,
             verbose):
         self.cmd_ctx = cmd_ctx
-        self.name = str(name)
+        self.name = name
         self.config = config
         self.targets = [str(t) for t in targets]
         self.upload_port = upload_port
diff --git a/platformio/compat.py b/platformio/compat.py
index 53ba736a..4aad4ea2 100644
--- a/platformio/compat.py
+++ b/platformio/compat.py
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ if PY2:
     def hashlib_encode_data(data):
         if is_bytes(data):
             return data
-        if not isinstance(data, string_types):
+        if isinstance(data, unicode):
+            data = data.encode(get_filesystem_encoding())
+        elif not isinstance(data, string_types):
             data = str(data)
         return data