diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ce9063d0..68eaf14a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #
 # Build the documentation::
 #
-#   make env
+#   make env (once)
 #   make docs
 #
 # Create a source package::
@@ -20,9 +20,6 @@
 PYTHON := python$(PYTHON_VERSION)
 PYTHON_VERSION ?= $(shell $(PYTHON) -c 'import sys; print ("%d.%d" % sys.version_info[:2])')
 BUILD_DIR = $(shell pwd)/build/lib.$(PYTHON_VERSION)
-ENV_DIR = $(shell pwd)/env/py-$(PYTHON_VERSION)
-ENV_BIN = $(ENV_DIR)/bin
-ENV_LIB = $(ENV_DIR)/lib
 
 SOURCE_C := $(wildcard psycopg/*.c psycopg/*.h)
 SOURCE_PY := $(wildcard lib/*.py)
@@ -46,9 +43,6 @@ endif
 VERSION := $(shell grep PSYCOPG_VERSION setup.py | head -1 | sed -e "s/.*'\(.*\)'/\1/")
 SDIST := dist/psycopg2-$(VERSION).tar.gz
 
-EASY_INSTALL = PYTHONPATH=$(ENV_LIB) $(ENV_BIN)/easy_install-$(PYTHON_VERSION) -d $(ENV_LIB) -s $(ENV_BIN)
-EZ_SETUP = $(ENV_BIN)/ez_setup.py
-
 .PHONY: env check clean
 
 default: package
@@ -68,22 +62,8 @@ docs-zip: doc/docs.zip
 
 sdist: $(SDIST)
 
-# The environment is currently required to build the documentation.
-# It is not clean by 'make clean'
-
-env: easy_install
-	mkdir -p $(ENV_BIN)
-	mkdir -p $(ENV_LIB)
-	$(EASY_INSTALL) docutils
-	$(EASY_INSTALL) sphinx
-
-easy_install: ez_setup
-	PYTHONPATH=$(ENV_LIB) $(PYTHON) $(EZ_SETUP) -d $(ENV_LIB) -s $(ENV_BIN) setuptools
-
-ez_setup:
-	mkdir -p $(ENV_BIN)
-	mkdir -p $(ENV_LIB)
-	wget -O $(EZ_SETUP) http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py
+env:
+	$(MAKE) -C doc $@
 
 check:
 	PYTHONPATH=$(BUILD_DIR):$(PYTHONPATH) $(PYTHON) -c "from psycopg2 import tests; tests.unittest.main(defaultTest='tests.test_suite')" --verbose
@@ -122,10 +102,10 @@ MANIFEST: MANIFEST.in $(SOURCE)
 
 # docs depend on the build as it partly use introspection.
 doc/html/genindex.html: $(PLATLIB) $(PURELIB) $(SOURCE_DOC)
-	PYTHONPATH=$(ENV_LIB):$(BUILD_DIR):$$PYTHONPATH $(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$(ENV_BIN)/sphinx-build -C doc html
+	PYTHONPATH=:$(BUILD_DIR):$$PYTHONPATH $(MAKE) -C doc html
 
 doc/psycopg2.txt: $(PLATLIB) $(PURELIB) $(SOURCE_DOC)
-	PYTHONPATH=$(ENV_LIB):$(BUILD_DIR):$$PYTHONPATH $(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$(ENV_BIN)/sphinx-build -C doc text
+	PYTHONPATH=$(BUILD_DIR):$$PYTHONPATH $(MAKE) -C doc text
 
 doc/docs.zip: doc/html/genindex.html
 	(cd doc/html && zip -r ../docs.zip *)
diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 54b59232..6d639526 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -1,23 +1,30 @@
-.PHONY: help clean html text doctest
+.PHONY: env help clean html text doctest
 
 docs: html text
 
 check: doctest
 
+# The environment is currently required to build the documentation.
+# It is not clean by 'make clean'
+
 help:
-	cd src && $(MAKE) $@
+	$(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$$(pwd)/env/bin/sphinx-build -C src $@
 
 html:
-	cd src && $(MAKE) $@
+	$(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$$(pwd)/env/bin/sphinx-build -C src $@
 	cp -r src/_build/html .
 
 text:
-	cd src && $(MAKE) $@
+	$(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$$(pwd)/env/bin/sphinx-build -C src $@
 	cd src && tools/stitch_text.py index.rst _build/text > ../psycopg2.txt
 
 doctest:
-	cd src && $(MAKE) $@
+	$(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$$(pwd)/env/bin/sphinx-build -C src $@
 
 clean:
-	cd src && $(MAKE) $@
+	$(MAKE) SPHINXBUILD=$$(pwd)/env/bin/sphinx-build -C src $@
 	rm -rf html psycopg2.txt
+
+env: requirements.txt
+	virtualenv env
+	./env/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b5323e79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Packages only needed to build the docs
+Pygments>=1.5
+Sphinx>=1.2,<=1.3