diff --git a/bin/yashchiki b/bin/yashchiki
index 6d17e3a9e1d408bb6a12e95e0fdd15b7e82393c8..65547ecd58ab0ef24020d54531bbfeadc6d07044 100755
--- a/bin/yashchiki
+++ b/bin/yashchiki
@@ -97,7 +97,8 @@ parser.add_argument(
     help="Folder where to store meta information to be copied into the "
          "container. If not provided, a temporary directory is used.")
 parser.add_argument(
-    "--tmpdir", type=pathlib.Path, default="",
+    "--tmpdir", type=pathlib.Path,
+    default="TMPDIR" in os.environ and os.environ["TMPDIR"] or "",
     help=f"Directory in which temporary files are saved. This includes "
          "spack stages, temporary spack config as well as the meta dir "
          "(if not provided as an argument). If this argument is given "