diff --git a/packages/@sanity/core/package.json b/packages/@sanity/core/package.json
index 2bae9bf0f7b..24753791bce 100644
--- a/packages/@sanity/core/package.json
+++ b/packages/@sanity/core/package.json
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
     "configstore": "^3.0.0",
     "debug": "^3.1.0",
     "deep-sort-object": "^1.0.1",
+    "dotenv": "^8.2.0",
     "es6-promisify": "^6.0.0",
     "execa": "^1.0.0",
     "filesize": "^3.5.6",
diff --git a/packages/@sanity/core/src/actions/exec/execScript.js b/packages/@sanity/core/src/actions/exec/execScript.js
index fc05c1c5e23..6753abcb678 100644
--- a/packages/@sanity/core/src/actions/exec/execScript.js
+++ b/packages/@sanity/core/src/actions/exec/execScript.js
@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 const spawn = require('child_process').spawn
 const path = require('path')
+const dotenv = require('dotenv')
 const fse = require('fs-extra')
 
+// Try to load .env files from the current directory
+// eslint-disable-next-line no-process-env
+const env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'
+dotenv.config({path: path.join(process.cwd(), `.env.${env}`)})
+
 module.exports = async args => {
   // In case of specifying --with-user-token <file.js>, use the "token" as the script
   const script = args.argsWithoutOptions[0] || args.extOptions['with-user-token']