diff --git a/docs/environment.rst b/docs/environment.rst
index 461fd9273acd8..9f6b47c6fa849 100644
--- a/docs/environment.rst
+++ b/docs/environment.rst
@@ -174,3 +174,15 @@ Example: Configure the display to 640x480 black and white (1 bit per pixel):
 
 `Adafruit Feather RP2350 <https://circuitpython.org/board/adafruit_feather_rp2350/>`_
 `Adafruit Metro RP2350 <https://circuitpython.org/board/adafruit_metro_rp2350/>`_
+
+CIRCUITPY_TERMINAL_SCALE
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Allows the entry of a display scaling factor used during the terminalio console construction.
+The entered scaling factor only affects the terminalio console and has no impact on
+the UART, Web Workflow, BLE Workflow, etc consoles.
+
+This feature is not enabled on boards that the CIRCUITPY_OS_GETENV (os CIRCUIPTY_FULL_BUILD)
+flag has been set to 0. Currently this is primarily boards with limited flash including some
+of the Atmel_samd boards based on the SAMD21/M0 microprocessor.
+
+`boards that the terminalio core module is available on <https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/shared-bindings/terminalio/>`_
diff --git a/shared-module/os/getenv.c b/shared-module/os/getenv.c
index 39c3b4cee4ac7..c7bfadf3418d8 100644
--- a/shared-module/os/getenv.c
+++ b/shared-module/os/getenv.c
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
 
 #include "extmod/vfs.h"
 #include "extmod/vfs_fat.h"
+
+#if CIRCUITPY_OS_GETENV
 typedef FIL file_arg;
 static bool open_file(const char *name, file_arg *active_file) {
     #if defined(UNIX)
@@ -412,3 +414,4 @@ os_getenv_err_t common_hal_os_getenv_int(const char *key, mp_int_t *value) {
     common_hal_os_getenv_showerr(key, result);
     return result;
 }
+#endif
diff --git a/supervisor/shared/display.c b/supervisor/shared/display.c
index f6788af0a8db4..32df5be74efce 100644
--- a/supervisor/shared/display.c
+++ b/supervisor/shared/display.c
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@
 
 #if CIRCUITPY_TERMINALIO
 #include "supervisor/port.h"
+#if CIRCUITPY_OS_GETENV
+#include "shared-module/os/__init__.h"
+#endif
 #endif
 
 #if CIRCUITPY_REPL_LOGO
@@ -55,7 +58,7 @@ void supervisor_start_terminal(uint16_t width_px, uint16_t height_px) {
     }
     // Default the scale to 2 because we may show blinka without the terminal for
     // languages that don't have font support.
-    uint8_t scale = 2;
+    mp_int_t scale = 2;
 
     #if CIRCUITPY_TERMINALIO
     displayio_tilegrid_t *scroll_area = &supervisor_terminal_scroll_area_text_grid;
@@ -66,6 +69,9 @@ void supervisor_start_terminal(uint16_t width_px, uint16_t height_px) {
     if (width_in_tiles <= 80) {
         scale = 1;
     }
+    #if CIRCUITPY_OS_GETENV
+    (void)common_hal_os_getenv_int("CIRCUITPY_TERMINAL_SCALE", &scale);
+    #endif
 
     width_in_tiles = MAX(1, width_px / (scroll_area->tile_width * scale));
     uint16_t height_in_tiles = MAX(2, height_px / (scroll_area->tile_height * scale));