diff --git a/lib/env.ts b/lib/env.ts
index 8298fe52..1db2f190 100644
--- a/lib/env.ts
+++ b/lib/env.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
-import './load-env';
 import { z } from 'zod';
 
 /**
  * Environment variable schema.
- * This ensures the application has all required configuration at startup.
  */
 const envSchema = z.object({
   NODE_ENV: z.enum(['development', 'production', 'test']).default('development'),
@@ -32,17 +30,14 @@ const envSchema = z.object({
   MAIL_RECIPIENTS: z.string().optional().transform(val => val?.split(',').filter(Boolean) || []),
 });
 
-export type Env = z.infer<typeof envSchema>;
-
 /**
  * Helper to get environment variables.
- * On the client, only NEXT_PUBLIC_ variables are available.
- * On the server, all variables are available.
  */
 function getRawEnv() {
-  if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
+  const isServer = typeof window === 'undefined';
+
+  if (!isServer) {
     // Client-side: only return NEXT_PUBLIC_ variables
-    // We must explicitly reference them for Next.js inlining to work
     return {
       NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL,
       NEXT_PUBLIC_UMAMI_WEBSITE_ID: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_UMAMI_WEBSITE_ID,
@@ -50,7 +45,7 @@ function getRawEnv() {
     };
   }
 
-  // Server-side: return all variables from process.env
+  // Server-side: return all variables
   return {
     NODE_ENV: process.env.NODE_ENV,
     NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL,
@@ -71,5 +66,11 @@ function getRawEnv() {
 
 /**
  * Validated environment variables.
+ * We use safeParse during build to avoid crashing the build process.
  */
-export const env = envSchema.parse(getRawEnv());
+const isBuildTime = process.env.NEXT_PHASE === 'phase-production-build';
+const parsed = isBuildTime 
+  ? envSchema.safeParse(getRawEnv())
+  : { success: true, data: envSchema.parse(getRawEnv()) };
+
+export const env = parsed.success ? parsed.data : envSchema.parse({});
diff --git a/lib/load-env.ts b/lib/load-env.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 9be2e233..00000000
--- a/lib/load-env.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-import dotenv from 'dotenv';
-import path from 'path';
-
-/**
- * Loads environment variables from .env file in development.
- * This must be called before any other module that uses environment variables.
- */
-if (typeof window === 'undefined' && process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production') {
-  dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.env') });
-}