diff --git a/cmd/init.go b/cmd/init.go
index 9ad12746..28ed36e3 100644
--- a/cmd/init.go
+++ b/cmd/init.go
@@ -93,11 +93,17 @@ dapr init -s
 }
 
 func init() {
+	defaultRuntimeVersion := "latest"
+	viper.BindEnv("runtime_version_override", "DAPR_RUNTIME_VERSION")
+	runtimeVersionEnv := viper.GetString("runtime_version_override")
+	if runtimeVersionEnv != "" {
+		defaultRuntimeVersion = runtimeVersionEnv
+	}
 	InitCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&kubernetesMode, "kubernetes", "k", false, "Deploy Dapr to a Kubernetes cluster")
 	InitCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&wait, "wait", "", false, "Wait for Kubernetes initialization to complete")
 	InitCmd.Flags().UintVarP(&timeout, "timeout", "", 300, "The wait timeout for the Kubernetes installation")
 	InitCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&slimMode, "slim", "s", false, "Exclude placement service, Redis and Zipkin containers from self-hosted installation")
-	InitCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&runtimeVersion, "runtime-version", "", "latest", "The version of the Dapr runtime to install, for example: 1.0.0")
+	InitCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&runtimeVersion, "runtime-version", "", defaultRuntimeVersion, "The version of the Dapr runtime to install, for example: 1.0.0")
 	InitCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&dashboardVersion, "dashboard-version", "", "latest", "The version of the Dapr dashboard to install, for example: 1.0.0")
 	InitCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&initNamespace, "namespace", "n", "dapr-system", "The Kubernetes namespace to install Dapr in")
 	InitCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&enableMTLS, "enable-mtls", "", true, "Enable mTLS in your cluster")