diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b7fc1f771..eec76c25e 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ env:
     - TEST_COVERAGE=stdout
     - GO_METALINTER_THREADS=1
     - GO_COVER_DIR=_output
-    - HELM_VERSION=v3.1.2
     - VM_DRIVER=none
     - MINIKUBE_VERSION=v1.6.0
     - CHANGE_MINIKUBE_NONE_USER=true
@@ -74,6 +73,7 @@ jobs:
           "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/securego/gosec/master/install.sh"
           | sh -s -- -b $GOPATH/bin "${GOSEC_VERSION}"
         # install helm for helm lint
+        - export HELM_VERSION=$(source build.env ; echo ${HELM_VERSION})
         - curl -L https://git.io/get_helm.sh
           | bash -s -- -v "${HELM_VERSION}"
         # yamllint disable rule:line-length
diff --git a/build.env b/build.env
index 1d1c21258..0d1915c67 100644
--- a/build.env
+++ b/build.env
@@ -16,3 +16,6 @@ GO111MODULE=on
 # static checks and linters
 GOLANGCI_VERSION=v1.21.0
 GOSEC_VERSION=2.0.0
+
+# helm chart generation, testing and publishing
+HELM_VERSION=v3.1.2
diff --git a/scripts/install-helm.sh b/scripts/install-helm.sh
index 670d6a932..b98130356 100755
--- a/scripts/install-helm.sh
+++ b/scripts/install-helm.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 TEMP="/tmp/cephcsi-helm-test"
 
 HELM="helm"
-HELM_VERSION=${HELM_VERSION:-"v3.1.2"}
+HELM_VERSION=${HELM_VERSION:-"latest"}
 arch="${ARCH:-}"
 CEPHFS_CHART_NAME="ceph-csi-cephfs"
 RBD_CHART_NAME="ceph-csi-rbd"
diff --git a/scripts/travis-helmtest.sh b/scripts/travis-helmtest.sh
index 67166c18e..d8d96dac0 100755
--- a/scripts/travis-helmtest.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis-helmtest.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,17 @@ export KUBE_VERSION=$1
 kube_version() {
     echo "${KUBE_VERSION}" | sed 's/^v//' | cut -d'.' -f"${1}"
 }
+
+# configure global environment variables
+# shellcheck source=build.env
+source "$(dirname "${0}")/../build.env"
+cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/environment
+HELM_VERSION=${HELM_VERSION}
+EOF
+
+# helm is installed from this shell, not a new one that reads /etc/environment
+export HELM_VERSION=${HELM_VERSION}
+
 sudo scripts/minikube.sh up
 sudo scripts/minikube.sh deploy-rook
 sudo scripts/minikube.sh create-block-pool