diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 98aa66e..aec1ee7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ environment variable so you can simply run the `hab` command.
 pip3 install hab
 ```
 
-If you want to make use of (json5)[https://pypi.org/project/pyjson5/] formatting
+If you want to make use of [json5](https://pypi.org/project/pyjson5/) formatting
 when creating the various json files that drives hab, you should use the optional
 json5 dependency. This lets you add comments and allows for trailing commas.
 
diff --git a/hab/parsers/flat_config.py b/hab/parsers/flat_config.py
index 70c3c30..0bc5c56 100644
--- a/hab/parsers/flat_config.py
+++ b/hab/parsers/flat_config.py
@@ -64,6 +64,11 @@ def _collect_values(self, node, default=False):
     def _finalize_values(self):
         """Post processing done after `_collect_values` is run."""
 
+        # `_process_version` needs the global environment variables populated
+        # so populating per-alias env var's properly inherit the global variables.
+        # This call ensures that `self.frozen_data["environment"]` is populated.
+        self.environment
+
         # Process version aliases, merging global env vars.
         platform_aliases = {}
         self.frozen_data["aliases"] = platform_aliases
diff --git a/tests/configs/app/app_aliased_mod.json b/tests/configs/app/app_aliased_mod.json
index 9c71607..925f40a 100644
--- a/tests/configs/app/app_aliased_mod.json
+++ b/tests/configs/app/app_aliased_mod.json
@@ -5,5 +5,10 @@
     "distros": [
         "aliased",
         "aliased_mod"
-    ]
+    ],
+    "environment": {
+        "set" : {
+            "CONFIG_DEFINED": "config_variable"
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/distros/aliased/2.0/list_vars.py b/tests/distros/aliased/2.0/list_vars.py
index face471..5182452 100644
--- a/tests/distros/aliased/2.0/list_vars.py
+++ b/tests/distros/aliased/2.0/list_vars.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ def print_var(var):
 print_var("ALIASED_GLOBAL_D")
 print_var("ALIASED_GLOBAL_E")
 print_var("ALIASED_LOCAL")
+print_var("CONFIG_DEFINED")
 print("")
 
 print(' PATH env var '.center(80, '-'))
diff --git a/tests/test_freeze.py b/tests/test_freeze.py
index 31f3818..b20622d 100644
--- a/tests/test_freeze.py
+++ b/tests/test_freeze.py
@@ -49,9 +49,7 @@ def test_freeze(monkeypatch, config_root, platform, pathsep):
     monkeypatch.setattr(os, 'pathsep', pathsep)
     site = Site([config_root / "site_main.json"])
     resolver = Resolver(site=site)
-
     cfg_root = utils.path_forward_slash(config_root)
-    cfg = resolver.resolve("not_set/distros")
 
     # Add a platform_path_maps mapping to convert the current hab checkout path
     # to a generic know path on the other platform for uniform testing.
@@ -66,13 +64,14 @@ def test_freeze(monkeypatch, config_root, platform, pathsep):
     else:
         mappings['local-hab'][site.platform] = PurePosixPath(cfg_root)
 
+    # Resolve the URI for frozen testing
+    cfg = resolver.resolve("not_set/distros")
+
     # Ensure consistent testing across platforms. cfg has the current os's
     # file paths instead of what is stored in frozen.json
     cfg.frozen_data["aliases"]["linux"]["dcc"] = "TEST_DIR_NAME//the_dcc"
     cfg.frozen_data["aliases"]["windows"]["dcc"] = "TEST_DIR_NAME\\the_dcc.exe"
 
-    # Force the lazily loaded `cfg.frozen_data["environment"]` value to be loaded
-    cfg.environment
     # Ensure the HAB_URI environment variable is defined on the FlatConfig object
     # When checking the return from `cfg.freeze()` below HAB_URI is removed to
     # simplify the output json data.
diff --git a/tests/test_parsing.py b/tests/test_parsing.py
index 75b2a6d..a8086f0 100644
--- a/tests/test_parsing.py
+++ b/tests/test_parsing.py
@@ -719,6 +719,13 @@ def test_alias_mods_global(resolver):
     assert cfg.environment['ALIASED_GLOBAL_E'] is None
     assert cfg.environment['ALIASED_GLOBAL_F'] == ['Global F']
     assert cfg.environment['ALIASED_MOD_GLOBAL_A'] == ['Global Mod A']
+    # This global env var was defined by the config json file.
+    # Ensure that it did not get lost at some point in the process.
+    assert cfg.environment['CONFIG_DEFINED'] == ['config_variable']
+    # This variable is always added by hab automatically
+    assert cfg.environment['HAB_URI'] == ['app/aliased/mod']
+    # Ensure no extra env vars were defined
+    assert len(cfg.environment) == 9
 
     # Check cmd is expected
     assert alias["cmd"][0] == "python"