diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 44417596c3e4c2e8b76a0e762c9344ed47c1a363..65b22d3541a9a08b26e4f672d3e581d4eb26acf3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ It can be called without arguments, in which case it will take its configuration
 ```
 Alternatively it can be passed the `dbManager` object as an argument, which will override the values on config.
 
-The name of the database will be the full dbPath with the NODE_ENV appended.
+The name of the database will be the full `dbPath`.
 
 ### `addUser`
 
@@ -61,5 +61,5 @@ addUser({
 
 ### `dbExists`
 
-This function checks if any database exists at the configured path for the current NODE_ENV. Returns `true` or `false`
+This function checks if any database exists at the configured path. Returns `true` or `false`
 
diff --git a/config/custom-environment-variables.js b/config/custom-environment-variables.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 5da7ea7032cbe350347717d30933c03be7944449..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/config/custom-environment-variables.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-module.exports = { NODE_ENV: 'NODE_ENV' }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/setup-db/generate-env.js b/src/setup-db/generate-env.js
index cc1d571d3a12759345e8aff2c0883063c8b61b32..5f1572238e2ff27a5a288666fc5138a98b9aa437 100644
--- a/src/setup-db/generate-env.js
+++ b/src/setup-db/generate-env.js
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ const fs = require('fs-extra')
 const crypto = require('crypto')
 const logger = require('@pubsweet/logger')
 const _ = require('lodash/fp')
+const config = require('config')
 
 module.exports = () => {
-  const configFilePath = path.join(process.cwd(), 'config', `local-${process.env.NODE_ENV}.json`)
+  const configFilePath = path.join(process.cwd(), 'config', `local-${config.util.getEnv('NODE_ENV')}.json`)
   logger.info(`Adding pubsweet secret to ${configFilePath}`)
 
   let configObj