diff --git a/bin/sugar-activity b/bin/sugar-activity
index 12809b10..9f1ba97b 100755
--- a/bin/sugar-activity
+++ b/bin/sugar-activity
@@ -35,11 +35,12 @@ DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)
 from sugar3.activity import activityhandle
 from sugar3 import config
 from sugar3.bundle.activitybundle import ActivityBundle
-from sugar3.activity.activityfactory import get_environment
 from sugar3 import logger
 
 from sugar3.bundle.bundle import MalformedBundleException
 
+from distutils.dir_util import mkpath
+
 def create_activity_instance(constructor, handle):
     activity = constructor(handle)
     activity.show()
@@ -124,7 +125,22 @@ def main():
             activity_class = bundle.get_command().split(" ")[1]
 
     if 'SUGAR_VERSION' not in os.environ:
-        environ = get_environment(bundle)
+        profile_id = os.environ.get('SUGAR_PROFILE', 'default')
+        home_dir = os.environ.get('SUGAR_HOME', os.path.expanduser('~/.sugar'))
+        base = os.path.join(home_dir, profile_id)
+        activity_root = os.path.join(base, bundle.get_bundle_id())
+
+        instance_dir = os.path.join(activity_root, 'instance')
+        mkpath(instance_dir)
+
+        data_dir = os.path.join(activity_root, 'data')
+        mkpath(data_dir)
+
+        tmp_dir = os.path.join(activity_root, 'tmp')
+        mkpath(tmp_dir)
+
+        os.environ['SUGAR_ACTIVITY_ROOT'] = activity_root
+        os.environ['SUGAR_BUNDLE_PATH'] = bundle.get_path()
 
     os.environ['SUGAR_BUNDLE_ID'] = bundle.get_bundle_id()
     os.environ['SUGAR_BUNDLE_NAME'] = bundle.get_name()