diff --git a/src/delegator.cpp b/src/delegator.cpp
index 142fea775c46ff5f3afb7ca29b3a631e9fbb4675..72958f7843336c57b7d27e2b6d0e9aad7dc32d6e 100644
--- a/src/delegator.cpp
+++ b/src/delegator.cpp
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <sstream>
 #include <strategies.hpp>
 
+#include <utils/string_helpers.hpp>
 #ifdef ENABLE_DLB
 #include "backends/dlb/dlb/dlb.hpp"
 #include "backends/dlb/dlb_talp_tree/dlb_talp_tree.hpp"
@@ -91,6 +92,19 @@ void Delegator::Init(std::string_view nesting_mode, std::string_view backend) {
     break;
   }
 
+  if (stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual("ENV",std::string(backend))) {
+      // We instanciate the variable here, because its only required if the
+      // backend is set to "env".
+      EnvironmentVariable<std::string> env_backend = EnvironmentVariable<
+          std::string>(
+          "BACKEND",
+          "Set the backend to use, when init with \"env\" backend name.",
+          true);
+
+      // Unwraping the std::optional is safe because the variable is required.
+      backend = env_backend.getValue().value();
+  }
+
   // next choose backend
   switch (nesting_mode_) {
   case NestingMode::Detection:
diff --git a/src/utils/CMakeLists.txt b/src/utils/CMakeLists.txt
index 369cedfeed5a75d18805932e80298436db34b79b..ea714acbd422f8e87dc05a2c6cbaa6238e657d1e 100644
--- a/src/utils/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/utils/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-target_sources(nesmik PRIVATE environment_variable.cpp parallelism_helper.cpp)
\ No newline at end of file
+target_sources(nesmik PRIVATE environment_variable.cpp parallelism_helper.cpp string_helpers.cpp)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/utils/environment_variable.cpp b/src/utils/environment_variable.cpp
index 589d53d6351d03cd69c30ecdef18b45464864194..9b1df9d62207d8ac85d63aa9a9960367daa6c945 100644
--- a/src/utils/environment_variable.cpp
+++ b/src/utils/environment_variable.cpp
@@ -4,26 +4,18 @@
 #include <optional>
 #include <string>
 
-#include "environment_variable.hpp"
-
-// some helper function to compare case insenstive strings
-bool charToLowerEquals(char a, char b) {
-  return std::tolower(static_cast<unsigned char>(a)) ==
-         std::tolower(static_cast<unsigned char>(b));
-}
+#include <utils/string_helpers.hpp>
 
-bool compareCaseInsenstive(const std::string &a, const std::string &b) {
-  return std::equal(a.begin(), a.end(), b.begin(), b.end(), charToLowerEquals);
-}
+#include "environment_variable.hpp"
 
 template <> std::optional<bool> fromEnvString(const std::string &env_string) {
-  if (compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "0") ||
-      compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "false") ||
-      compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "off")) {
+  if (stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "0") ||
+      stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "false") ||
+      stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "off")) {
     return std::optional<bool>{false};
-  } else if (compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "1") ||
-             compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "true") ||
-             compareCaseInsenstive(env_string, "on")) {
+  } else if (stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "1") ||
+             stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "true") ||
+             stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(env_string, "on")) {
     return std::optional<bool>{true};
   } else {
     return std::nullopt;
diff --git a/src/utils/environment_variable.hpp b/src/utils/environment_variable.hpp
index d4543b0339aae48591c4bee7b50edfefa947536b..97834f0b6193434e4c1bc2352e79a43ee25075ce 100644
--- a/src/utils/environment_variable.hpp
+++ b/src/utils/environment_variable.hpp
@@ -7,11 +7,6 @@
 #include <optional>
 #include <string>
 
-// some helper function to compare case insenstive strings
-bool charToLowerEquals(char a, char b);
-
-bool compareCaseInsenstive(const std::string &a, const std::string &b);
-
 // dont allow the compiler to guess, but force user to implement conversion
 template <typename T>
 std::optional<T> fromEnvString(const std::string &env_string) = delete;
diff --git a/src/utils/string_helpers.cpp b/src/utils/string_helpers.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..15de8fc4500de4cc0bbf4d4ca8fdb781c4a8dc4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/string_helpers.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#include <algorithm>
+#include <string>
+
+#include "string_helpers.hpp"
+
+// some helper function to compare case insenstive strings
+bool charToLowerEquals(char a, char b) {
+  return std::tolower(static_cast<unsigned char>(a)) ==
+         std::tolower(static_cast<unsigned char>(b));
+}
+
+bool stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(const std::string &a, const std::string &b) {
+  return std::equal(a.begin(), a.end(), b.begin(), b.end(), charToLowerEquals);
+}
diff --git a/src/utils/string_helpers.hpp b/src/utils/string_helpers.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..043600d470ba6e3d04e08c0cbeb91b479dc15e1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/string_helpers.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#ifndef NESMIK_STRING_HELPERS_HPP
+#define NESMIK_STRING_HELPERS_HPP
+
+#include <string>
+
+bool stringsAreCaseInsensitiveEqual(const std::string &a, const std::string &b);
+
+#endif // NESMIK_STRING_HELPERS_HPP