diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 0dc4d357..892f7cf6 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # App
 BUILD_NUMBER=
 DEBUG=true
-ENVIRONMENT=
+ENVIRONMENT=local
 NAME=my-starlite-app
 
 # API
diff --git a/docs/config.md b/docs/config.md
index 6e845d9d..95a5a51b 100644
--- a/docs/config.md
+++ b/docs/config.md
@@ -14,6 +14,16 @@ OPENAPI_VERSION=1.0.0
 REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0
 ```
 
+## Local Development
+
+Structured logs are nice when sending our logs through to some ingestion service, however, not so
+nice for local development.
+
+set `ENVIRONMENT=local` in your local `.env` file for a nicer local development experience
+(we implement
+[this structlog pattern](https://www.structlog.org/en/stable/logging-best-practices.html#pretty-printing-vs-structured-output)
+for you!).
+
 ## Full `.env`
 
 ```dotenv title="Example .env"
diff --git a/src/starlite_saqlalchemy/log/__init__.py b/src/starlite_saqlalchemy/log/__init__.py
index 83d204cd..8b7c09ef 100644
--- a/src/starlite_saqlalchemy/log/__init__.py
+++ b/src/starlite_saqlalchemy/log/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import logging
-import sys
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
 import msgspec
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@
     structlog.processors.TimeStamper(fmt="iso", utc=True),
 ]
 
-if sys.stderr.isatty() or "pytest" in sys.modules:  # pragma: no cover
+if settings.app.ENVIRONMENT == "local":
     LoggerFactory: Any = structlog.WriteLoggerFactory
     default_processors.extend([structlog.dev.ConsoleRenderer()])
 else:  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/tests.env b/tests.env
index 92ac9e78..774c73dd 100644
--- a/tests.env
+++ b/tests.env
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # App
 BUILD_NUMBER=
 DEBUG=true
-ENVIRONMENT=
+ENVIRONMENT=test
 NAME=my-starlite-app
 
 # API