diff --git a/bigchaindb/__init__.py b/bigchaindb/__init__.py
index a4006d3f..673fe57f 100644
--- a/bigchaindb/__init__.py
+++ b/bigchaindb/__init__.py
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ config = {
         'advertised_host': 'localhost',
         'advertised_port': 9985,
     },
+    # FIXME: hardcoding to localmongodb for now
     'database': _database_map['localmongodb'],
     'keypair': {
         'public': None,
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 25fee5c3..cf0299e3 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ def _configure_bigchaindb(request, ssl_context):
         }
     }
     config['database']['name'] = test_db_name
+    config = config_utils.env_config(config)
     config_utils.set_config(config)