diff --git a/cmake/podioTest.cmake b/cmake/podioTest.cmake
index 804e0822b..95ee19ee4 100644
--- a/cmake/podioTest.cmake
+++ b/cmake/podioTest.cmake
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 function(PODIO_SET_TEST_ENV test)
   # We need to convert this into a list of arguments that can be used as environment variable
   list(JOIN PODIO_IO_HANDLERS " " IO_HANDLERS)
-  set(test_environment
-    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/tests:${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/src:$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:ROOT::Tree>:$<$<TARGET_EXISTS:SIO::sio>:$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:SIO::sio>>:$ENV{LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
+  set_property(TEST ${test}
+    PROPERTY ENVIRONMENT
+      LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/tests:${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/src:$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:ROOT::Tree>:$<$<TARGET_EXISTS:SIO::sio>:$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:SIO::sio>>:$ENV{LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
       PYTHONPATH=${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/python:$ENV{PYTHONPATH}
       PODIO_SIOBLOCK_PATH=${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/tests
       ROOT_INCLUDE_PATH=${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/datamodel:${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include
@@ -15,9 +16,6 @@ function(PODIO_SET_TEST_ENV test)
       ENABLE_SIO=${ENABLE_SIO}
       PODIO_BUILD_BASE=${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}
   )
-  set_property(TEST ${test}
-    PROPERTY ENVIRONMENT "${test_environment}"
-  )
 endfunction()
 
 #--- small utility helper function to allow for a more terse definition of tests below