diff --git a/tests/posix/env/prj.conf b/tests/posix/env/prj.conf
index 7389f7de33e..7529d301e2e 100644
--- a/tests/posix/env/prj.conf
+++ b/tests/posix/env/prj.conf
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 CONFIG_ZTEST=y
 CONFIG_POSIX_ENV=y
+# Let's explicitly choose PICOLIBC, so it is used if supported even if it would not have been the
+# default (otherwise native targets default to the host C library)
+CONFIG_PICOLIBC=y
 CONFIG_COMMON_LIBC_MALLOC=y