diff --git a/pycloudlib/gce/cloud.py b/pycloudlib/gce/cloud.py
index 9d2ad79d..c9b407d9 100644
--- a/pycloudlib/gce/cloud.py
+++ b/pycloudlib/gce/cloud.py
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ def __init__(
 
         if project:
             os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"] = str(project)
+        elif "GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT" in os.environ:
+            project = os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"]
         else:
             command = ['gcloud', 'config', 'get-value', 'project']
             exception_text = (