diff --git a/bin/sugar.in b/bin/sugar.in
index de2595da..452ccd4a 100644
--- a/bin/sugar.in
+++ b/bin/sugar.in
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
+export SUGAR_PATH=@prefix@/share/sugar
 export GTK2_RC_FILES=@prefix@/share/sugar/data/gtkrc
 dbus-launch --exit-with-session sugar-shell
diff --git a/sugar/env.py b/sugar/env.py
index 3555e938..4bee5090 100644
--- a/sugar/env.py
+++ b/sugar/env.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ def _get_sugar_path(base, path=None):
     if os.environ.has_key('SUGAR_PATH'):
         sugar_path = os.environ['SUGAR_PATH']
     else:
-        sugar_path = _get_prefix_path('share/sugar')
+        raise RuntimeError("The SUGAR_PATH environment variable is not set.")
 
     if path:
         return os.path.join(sugar_path, base, path)