diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 43fe53d0b94725cdf0a2e0207053de8f87726f5f..c837187fbb375c50251e730bc543de956073d179 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ list(APPEND TURTLE_LIBS "${OpenMP_CXX_LIB_NAMES}")
 #####################################################################################
 ## Extra flags
 
-set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FLAGS} $ENV{TURTLE_OPTIMIZATION_FLAGS} -Wall -g")
+set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FLAGS} $ENV{TURTLE_COMPILATION_FLAGS} -Wall -g")
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILE_FLAGS}")
 
 #####################################################################################
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 5d410eec2e6eb0acd29ce82db806e0b2b1517d81..f83de7d4a76fceeb4cacd106e662aad3b3edb3ff 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Detailed full installation instructions:
      * `HDF5_ROOT`            - Base directory of HDF5
      * `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH`    - Directory containing local cmake configuration files
 
-    We also recommend that an environment variable `TURTLE_OPTIMIZATION_FLAGS`
+    We also recommend that an environment variable `TURTLE_COMPILATION_FLAGS`
     is defined appropriately.
     In particular, for clusters of unknown architecture it helps to log into
     individual nodes and run the following command: