diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index a39850725..c5856bcfa 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -25,23 +25,24 @@ RUN \
 RUN sed -i '/# Development/,$d' requirements.txt
 RUN apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps gcc musl-dev postgresql-dev zlib-dev jpeg-dev libwebp-dev openssl-dev libffi-dev cargo openldap-dev python3-dev && \
     echo -n "INPUT ( libldap.so )" > /usr/lib/libldap_r.so && \
-    python -m pip install --upgrade pip && \
-    pip install wheel==0.42.0 && \
-    pip install setuptools_rust==1.9.0 && \
-    pip install -r requirements.txt --no-cache-dir &&\
+    python -m venv venv && \
+    /opt/recipes/venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip && \
+    venv/bin/pip install wheel==0.42.0 && \
+    venv/bin/pip install setuptools_rust==1.9.0 && \
+    venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt --no-cache-dir &&\
     apk --purge del .build-deps
 
 #Copy project and execute it.
 COPY . ./
 
 # collect the static files
-RUN python manage.py collectstatic_js_reverse
-RUN python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+RUN /opt/recipes/venv/bin/python manage.py collectstatic_js_reverse
+RUN /opt/recipes/venv/bin/python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
 # copy the collected static files to a different location, so they can be moved into a potentially mounted volume
 RUN mv /opt/recipes/staticfiles /opt/recipes/staticfiles-collect
 
 # collect information from git repositories
-RUN python version.py
+RUN /opt/recipes/venv/bin/python version.py
 # delete git repositories to reduce image size
 RUN find . -type d -name ".git" | xargs rm -rf
 
diff --git a/boot.sh b/boot.sh
index 7d6ec7442..ab5d7fddd 100644
--- a/boot.sh
+++ b/boot.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-
-# conditionally activate virtualenv, since the docker container does not need it
-if [[ "${DOCKER}" != "true" ]]; then
-    source venv/bin/activate
-fi
+source venv/bin/activate
 
 TANDOOR_PORT="${TANDOOR_PORT:-8080}"
 GUNICORN_WORKERS="${GUNICORN_WORKERS:-3}"