diff --git a/app/build_containers.py b/app/build_containers.py
index 3e8bb140..aa72f54b 100644
--- a/app/build_containers.py
+++ b/app/build_containers.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def command(ctx, include, exclude):
     # TODO: make this configurable
     container_build_env = {
         "CERC_NPM_URL": "http://gitea.local:3000/api/packages/cerc-io/npm/",
-        "CERC_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN": os.environ["CERC_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN"],
+        "CERC_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN": config("CERC_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN", default="<token-not-supplied>"),
         "CERC_REPO_BASE_DIR": dev_root_path
     }