diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c74bd3a07d..e6f768f3e0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
 
 REPO := kpt.dev/configsync
 
+# Some of our recipes use bash syntax, so explicitly set the shell to bash.
+SHELL := /bin/bash
+
 # List of dirs containing go code owned by Nomos
 NOMOS_CODE_DIRS := pkg cmd e2e
 NOMOS_GO_PKG := $(foreach dir,$(NOMOS_CODE_DIRS),./$(dir)/...)
diff --git a/Makefile.build b/Makefile.build
index 7588b69e69..33515b4aff 100644
--- a/Makefile.build
+++ b/Makefile.build
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ HELM := $(BIN_DIR)/helm
 # Builds the image if it does not exist to enable testing with a new image
 # version before publishing.
 pull-buildenv:
-	@docker image inspect $(BUILDENV_IMAGE) \
+	@docker image inspect $(BUILDENV_IMAGE) &> /dev/null \
 	|| docker pull $(BUILDENV_IMAGE) || $(MAKE) build-buildenv
 
 build-buildenv: build/buildenv/Dockerfile