diff --git a/src/mpsd_software_manager/mpsd_software.py b/src/mpsd_software_manager/mpsd_software.py
index bcb23a5c571a61f88fb7a30adeee488fd117ce2b..d45e74ea565eefbf480a377ca54d227cb20428a3 100755
--- a/src/mpsd_software_manager/mpsd_software.py
+++ b/src/mpsd_software_manager/mpsd_software.py
@@ -1202,7 +1202,7 @@ def remove_spack_environment(spack_dir, environment_name, build_log_path=None):
     logging.warning(f"Removing spack environment {environment_name}")
     spack_env = spack_dir / "share" / "spack" / "setup-env.sh"
     commands_to_execute = [
-        f"export SPACK_DIR={spack_dir}",  # need to set SPACK_DIR in dash and sh
+        f"export SPACK_ROOT={spack_dir}",  # need to set SPACK_ROOT in dash and sh
         f". {spack_env}",
         f"spack env activate {environment_name}",
         f"for spec in $(spack -e {environment_name} find"  # this line continues
@@ -1237,7 +1237,7 @@ def remove_spack_package(spack_dir, package, build_log_path=None):
     logging.info(f"Removing spack package {package}")
     spack_env = spack_dir / "share" / "spack" / "setup-env.sh"
     commands_to_execute = [
-        f"export SPACK_DIR={spack_dir}",  # need to set SPACK_DIR in dash and sh
+        f"export SPACK_ROOT={spack_dir}",  # need to set SPACK_ROOT in dash and sh
         f". {spack_env}",
         f"spack uninstall -y {package}",
     ]
diff --git a/tests/test_mpsd_software.py b/tests/test_mpsd_software.py
index 85b834d143cba06670c8ab9b5362e76f97977d31..f24f5da69c7420188da24ad57dbfec22edc71452 100644
--- a/tests/test_mpsd_software.py
+++ b/tests/test_mpsd_software.py
@@ -778,7 +778,7 @@ def test_remove_package_sets(tmp_path, simple_toolchain):
     # check that zlib@1.2 is still installed
     # spack location -i <package> exit 0 if installed and 1 if not installed
     source_spack = (
-        f"export SPACK_DIR={release_dir} &&"
+        f"export SPACK_ROOT={release_dir} &&"
         f'. {release_dir / "spack" / "share" / "spack" / "setup-env.sh"}'
     )
     mod.run(f"{source_spack} && spack location -i zlib", shell=True, check=True)
@@ -815,7 +815,7 @@ def test_remove_global_package_sets():
         root_dir / release_to_test / mod.get_native_microarchitecture() / "spack"
     )
     source_spack = (
-        f"export SPACK_DIR={spack_dir} &&"
+        f"export SPACK_ROOT={spack_dir} &&"
         f'. {spack_dir / "share" / "spack" / "setup-env.sh"}'
     )
     # check that zlib is installed