diff --git a/src/basic/env-util.c b/src/basic/env-util.c
index 3e385e5ee4..cf2c47d214 100644
--- a/src/basic/env-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/env-util.c
@@ -1146,5 +1146,10 @@ int setenvf(const char *name, bool overwrite, const char *valuef, ...) {
         if (r < 0)
                 return -ENOMEM;
 
+        /* Try to suppress writes if the value is already set correctly (simply because memory management of
+         * environment variables sucks a bit. */
+        if (streq_ptr(getenv(name), value))
+                return 0;
+
         return RET_NERRNO(setenv(name, value, overwrite));
 }