diff --git a/scripts/oe-setup-builddir b/scripts/oe-setup-builddir
index 58c9ad67e1..5b204885e1 100755
--- a/scripts/oe-setup-builddir
+++ b/scripts/oe-setup-builddir
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ fi
 
 cd "$BUILDDIR"
 
-TEMPLATECONF=meta-yocto/conf
+TEMPLATECONF=${TEMPLATECONF:-meta-yocto/conf}
 
 # 
 # $TEMPLATECONF can point to a directory for the template local.conf & bblayers.conf