diff --git a/docs/docs/index.md b/docs/docs/index.md
index 65416e6..984e375 100644
--- a/docs/docs/index.md
+++ b/docs/docs/index.md
@@ -203,10 +203,14 @@ If you look at the stub script in `src/data/make_dataset.py`, it uses a package
 ```python
 # src/data/dotenv_example.py
 from os.path import join, dirname
-from dotenv import load_dotenv
+from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv
 
-dotenv_path = join(dirname(__file__), os.pardir, os.pardir, '.env')  # up two levels to root folder
+# find .env automagically by walking up directories until it's found
+dotenv_path = find_dotenv()
+
+# load up the entries as environment variables
 load_dotenv(dotenv_path)
+
 database_url = os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL")
 other_variable = os.environ.get("OTHER_VARIABLE")
 ```
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/src/data/make_dataset.py b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/src/data/make_dataset.py
index 66e3192..bc50a72 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/src/data/make_dataset.py	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/src/data/make_dataset.py	
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 import os
 import click
-import dotenv
 import logging
+from dotenv import find_dotenv, load_dotenv
 
 
 @click.command()
@@ -17,9 +17,12 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     log_fmt = '%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s'
     logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format=log_fmt)
 
+    # not used in this stub but often useful for finding various files
     project_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), os.pardir, os.pardir)
-    dotenv_path = os.path.join(project_dir, '.env')
-    dotenv.load_dotenv(dotenv_path)
+    
+    # find .env automagically by walking up directories until it's found, then
+    # load up the .env entries as environment variables
+    load_dotenv(find_dotenv())
 
     main()