diff --git a/src/common/env.c b/src/common/env.c
index 0bff6ef55aeeedd0f18490f6f2692ba3a5508131..a818c90a1ffc3ef45af7c106c99509465baa8da7 100644
--- a/src/common/env.c
+++ b/src/common/env.c
@@ -1029,9 +1029,12 @@ env_array_for_job(char ***dest, const resource_allocation_response_msg_t *alloc,
 		tmp_mem /= max_cpus_per_node;
 		env_array_overwrite_fmt(dest, "APRUN_DEFAULT_MEMORY", "%u",
 					tmp_mem);
-#endif
+		env_array_overwrite_fmt(dest, "SLURM_MEM_PER_CPU", "%u",
+					tmp_mem);
+#else
 		env_array_overwrite_fmt(dest, "SLURM_MEM_PER_NODE", "%u",
 					tmp_mem);
+#endif
 	}
 
 	/* OBSOLETE, but needed by MPI, do not remove */