diff --git a/cms/envs/aws.py b/cms/envs/aws.py
index 5d17d9c157..32a4c97551 100644
--- a/cms/envs/aws.py
+++ b/cms/envs/aws.py
@@ -86,8 +86,12 @@ CELERY_QUEUES = {
 with open(CONFIG_ROOT / CONFIG_PREFIX + "env.json") as env_file:
     ENV_TOKENS = json.load(env_file)
 
-# STATIC_URL specifies the url to use for static files
-STATIC_URL = ENV_TOKENS.get('STATIC_URL', STATIC_URL)
+# STATIC_URL_BASE specifies the base url to use for static files
+STATIC_URL_BASE = ENV_TOKENS.get('STATIC_URL_BASE', None)
+if STATIC_URL_BASE:
+    # collectstatic will fail if STATIC_URL is a unicode string
+    STATIC_URL = STATIC_URL_BASE.encode('ascii', 'ignore') + "/" + git.revision + "/"
+
 # GITHUB_REPO_ROOT is the base directory
 # for course data
 GITHUB_REPO_ROOT = ENV_TOKENS.get('GITHUB_REPO_ROOT', GITHUB_REPO_ROOT)
diff --git a/lms/envs/aws.py b/lms/envs/aws.py
index b6e47d6ab1..a1146c6c84 100644
--- a/lms/envs/aws.py
+++ b/lms/envs/aws.py
@@ -108,8 +108,12 @@ STATIC_ROOT_BASE = ENV_TOKENS.get('STATIC_ROOT_BASE', None)
 if STATIC_ROOT_BASE:
     STATIC_ROOT = path(STATIC_ROOT_BASE)
 
-# STATIC_URL specifies the url to use for static files
-STATIC_URL = ENV_TOKENS.get('STATIC_URL', STATIC_URL)
+
+# STATIC_URL_BASE specifies the base url to use for static files
+STATIC_URL_BASE = ENV_TOKENS.get('STATIC_URL_BASE', None)
+if STATIC_URL_BASE:
+    # collectstatic will fail if STATIC_URL is a unicode string
+    STATIC_URL = STATIC_URL_BASE.encode('ascii', 'ignore') + "/"
 
 PLATFORM_NAME = ENV_TOKENS.get('PLATFORM_NAME', PLATFORM_NAME)
 # For displaying on the receipt. At Stanford PLATFORM_NAME != MERCHANT_NAME, but PLATFORM_NAME is a fine default