diff --git a/project/SparkBuild.scala b/project/SparkBuild.scala
index b55c50560bb936b608dfb6ccec529c754e0b9df9..44abbc152f99f00541cb2e79e0b21a5d056d20de 100644
--- a/project/SparkBuild.scala
+++ b/project/SparkBuild.scala
@@ -86,9 +86,8 @@ object SparkBuild extends PomBuild {
     profiles
   }
 
-  override val profiles = Properties.envOrNone("MAVEN_PROFILES") match {
+  override val profiles = Properties.envOrNone("SBT_MAVEN_PROFILES") match {
     case None => backwardCompatibility
-    // Rationale: If -P option exists no need to support backwardCompatibility.
     case Some(v) =>
       if (backwardCompatibility.nonEmpty)
         println("Note: We ignore environment variables, when use of profile is detected in " +
@@ -96,6 +95,12 @@ object SparkBuild extends PomBuild {
       v.split("(\\s+|,)").filterNot(_.isEmpty).map(_.trim.replaceAll("-P", "")).toSeq
   }
 
+  Properties.envOrNone("SBT_MAVEN_PROPERTIES") match {
+    case Some(v) =>
+      v.split("(\\s+|,)").filterNot(_.isEmpty).map(_.split("=")).foreach(x => System.setProperty(x(0), x(1)))
+    case _ => 
+  }
+
   override val userPropertiesMap = System.getProperties.toMap
 
   lazy val sharedSettings = graphSettings ++ ScalaStyleSettings ++ Seq (
diff --git a/sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash b/sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash
index 857b62ffa229c6b1b1dac709941588196f32cabe..c91fecf024ad4c8318ca0af860fd7777fc6d5059 100755
--- a/sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash
+++ b/sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ addJava () {
 enableProfile () {
   dlog "[enableProfile] arg = '$1'"
   maven_profiles=( "${maven_profiles[@]}" "$1" )
-  export MAVEN_PROFILES="${maven_profiles[@]}"
+  export SBT_MAVEN_PROFILES="${maven_profiles[@]}"
 }
 
 addSbt () {