diff --git a/cmd/tk/env.go b/cmd/tk/env.go
index 7659cb541..063c63d57 100644
--- a/cmd/tk/env.go
+++ b/cmd/tk/env.go
@@ -236,6 +236,8 @@ func envListCmd() *cli.Command {
 		Args:    args,
 	}
 
+	dummyHelm := cmd.Flags().Bool("dummy-helm", false, "do not run helm within the environments. This speeds up listing if your helm charts do not generate any Tanka environments.")
+	dummyKustomize := cmd.Flags().Bool("dummy-kustomize", false, "do not run kustomize within the environments. This speeds up listing if kustomize does not generate any Tanka environments.")
 	useJSON := cmd.Flags().Bool("json", false, "json output")
 	getLabelSelector := labelSelectorFlag(cmd.Flags())
 
@@ -254,8 +256,13 @@ func envListCmd() *cli.Command {
 				return nil
 			}
 		}
-
-		envs, err := tanka.FindEnvs(path, tanka.FindOpts{Selector: getLabelSelector(), JsonnetOpts: getJsonnetOpts()})
+		findOpts := tanka.FindOpts{
+			Selector:       getLabelSelector(),
+			JsonnetOpts:    getJsonnetOpts(),
+			DummyHelm:      *dummyHelm,
+			DummyKustomize: *dummyKustomize,
+		}
+		envs, err := tanka.FindEnvs(path, findOpts)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
diff --git a/go.work.sum b/go.work.sum
index e2bc36cd6..e93b7d38f 100644
--- a/go.work.sum
+++ b/go.work.sum
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ github.com/pkg/diff v0.0.0-20210226163009-20ebb0f2a09e/go.mod h1:pJLUxLENpZxwdsK
 github.com/planetscale/vtprotobuf v0.6.1-0.20240319094008-0393e58bdf10/go.mod h1:t/avpk3KcrXxUnYOhZhMXJlSEyie6gQbtLq5NM3loB8=
 github.com/rogpeppe/fastuuid v1.2.0/go.mod h1:jVj6XXZzXRy/MSR5jhDC/2q6DgLz+nrA6LYCDYWNEvQ=
 github.com/rogpeppe/go-internal v1.9.0/go.mod h1:WtVeX8xhTBvf0smdhujwtBcq4Qrzq/fJaraNFVN+nFs=
+github.com/rogpeppe/go-internal v1.13.1/go.mod h1:uMEvuHeurkdAXX61udpOXGD/AzZDWNMNyH2VO9fmH0o=
 github.com/russross/blackfriday/v2 v2.1.0/go.mod h1:+Rmxgy9KzJVeS9/2gXHxylqXiyQDYRxCVz55jmeOWTM=
 github.com/stretchr/objx v0.4.0/go.mod h1:YvHI0jy2hoMjB+UWwv71VJQ9isScKT/TqJzVSSt89Yw=
 github.com/stretchr/objx v0.5.0/go.mod h1:Yh+to48EsGEfYuaHDzXPcE3xhTkx73EhmCGUpEOglKo=
@@ -103,14 +104,18 @@ golang.org/x/crypto v0.21.0 h1:X31++rzVUdKhX5sWmSOFZxx8UW/ldWx55cbf08iNAMA=
 golang.org/x/crypto v0.21.0/go.mod h1:0BP7YvVV9gBbVKyeTG0Gyn+gZm94bibOW5BjDEYAOMs=
 golang.org/x/crypto v0.23.0 h1:dIJU/v2J8Mdglj/8rJ6UUOM3Zc9zLZxVZwwxMooUSAI=
 golang.org/x/crypto v0.23.0/go.mod h1:CKFgDieR+mRhux2Lsu27y0fO304Db0wZe70UKqHu0v8=
+golang.org/x/crypto v0.28.0 h1:GBDwsMXVQi34v5CCYUm2jkJvu4cbtru2U4TN2PSyQnw=
+golang.org/x/crypto v0.28.0/go.mod h1:rmgy+3RHxRZMyY0jjAJShp2zgEdOqj2AO7U0pYmeQ7U=
 golang.org/x/mod v0.8.0/go.mod h1:iBbtSCu2XBx23ZKBPSOrRkjjQPZFPuis4dIYUhu/chs=
 golang.org/x/mod v0.9.0/go.mod h1:iBbtSCu2XBx23ZKBPSOrRkjjQPZFPuis4dIYUhu/chs=
 golang.org/x/mod v0.15.0/go.mod h1:hTbmBsO62+eylJbnUtE2MGJUyE7QWk4xUqPFrRgJ+7c=
 golang.org/x/mod v0.17.0/go.mod h1:hTbmBsO62+eylJbnUtE2MGJUyE7QWk4xUqPFrRgJ+7c=
 golang.org/x/mod v0.18.0/go.mod h1:hTbmBsO62+eylJbnUtE2MGJUyE7QWk4xUqPFrRgJ+7c=
+golang.org/x/mod v0.20.0/go.mod h1:hTbmBsO62+eylJbnUtE2MGJUyE7QWk4xUqPFrRgJ+7c=
 golang.org/x/net v0.17.0/go.mod h1:NxSsAGuq816PNPmqtQdLE42eU2Fs7NoRIZrHJAlaCOE=
 golang.org/x/net v0.21.0/go.mod h1:bIjVDfnllIU7BJ2DNgfnXvpSvtn8VRwhlsaeUTyUS44=
 golang.org/x/net v0.22.0/go.mod h1:JKghWKKOSdJwpW2GEx0Ja7fmaKnMsbu+MWVZTokSYmg=
+golang.org/x/net v0.28.0/go.mod h1:yqtgsTWOOnlGLG9GFRrK3++bGOUEkNBoHZc8MEDWPNg=
 golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.17.0/go.mod h1:OzPDGQiuQMguemayvdylqddI7qcD9lnSDb+1FiwQ5HA=
 golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.20.0/go.mod h1:XYTD2NtWslqkgxebSiOHnXEap4TF09sJSc7H1sXbhtI=
 golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.22.0/go.mod h1:XYTD2NtWslqkgxebSiOHnXEap4TF09sJSc7H1sXbhtI=
@@ -122,6 +127,7 @@ golang.org/x/sys v0.5.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.17.0/go.mod h1:/VUhepiaJMQUp4+oa/7Zr1D23ma6VTLIYjOOTFZPUcA=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.18.0/go.mod h1:/VUhepiaJMQUp4+oa/7Zr1D23ma6VTLIYjOOTFZPUcA=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.21.0/go.mod h1:/VUhepiaJMQUp4+oa/7Zr1D23ma6VTLIYjOOTFZPUcA=
+golang.org/x/sys v0.23.0/go.mod h1:/VUhepiaJMQUp4+oa/7Zr1D23ma6VTLIYjOOTFZPUcA=
 golang.org/x/telemetry v0.0.0-20240208230135-b75ee8823808/go.mod h1:KG1lNk5ZFNssSZLrpVb4sMXKMpGwGXOxSG3rnu2gZQQ=
 golang.org/x/telemetry v0.0.0-20240228155512-f48c80bd79b2/go.mod h1:TeRTkGYfJXctD9OcfyVLyj2J3IxLnKwHJR8f4D8a3YE=
 golang.org/x/telemetry v0.0.0-20240521205824-bda55230c457/go.mod h1:pRgIJT+bRLFKnoM1ldnzKoxTIn14Yxz928LQRYYgIN0=
@@ -137,6 +143,7 @@ golang.org/x/tools v0.13.0/go.mod h1:HvlwmtVNQAhOuCjW7xxvovg8wbNq7LwfXh/k7wXUl58
 golang.org/x/tools v0.18.0/go.mod h1:GL7B4CwcLLeo59yx/9UWWuNOW1n3VZ4f5axWfML7Lcg=
 golang.org/x/tools v0.21.1-0.20240508182429-e35e4ccd0d2d/go.mod h1:aiJjzUbINMkxbQROHiO6hDPo2LHcIPhhQsa9DLh0yGk=
 golang.org/x/tools v0.22.0/go.mod h1:aCwcsjqvq7Yqt6TNyX7QMU2enbQ/Gt0bo6krSeEri+c=
+golang.org/x/tools v0.24.0/go.mod h1:YhNqVBIfWHdzvTLs0d8LCuMhkKUgSUKldakyV7W/WDQ=
 golang.org/x/xerrors v0.0.0-20220907171357-04be3eba64a2/go.mod h1:K8+ghG5WaK9qNqU5K3HdILfMLy1f3aNYFI/wnl100a8=
 google.golang.org/appengine v1.6.8/go.mod h1:1jJ3jBArFh5pcgW8gCtRJnepW8FzD1V44FJffLiz/Ds=
 google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/api v0.0.0-20240318140521-94a12d6c2237/go.mod h1:Z5Iiy3jtmioajWHDGFk7CeugTyHtPvMHA4UTmUkyalE=
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/eval.go b/pkg/jsonnet/eval.go
index 16901982f..722e0e3a8 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/eval.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/eval.go
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ func evaluateSnippet(jsonnetImpl types.JsonnetImplementation, evalFunc evalFunc,
 	opts.ImportPaths = jpath
 	evaluator := jsonnetImpl.MakeEvaluator(opts.ImportPaths, opts.ExtCode, opts.TLACode, opts.MaxStack)
 	// We're using the go implementation to deal with imports because we're not evaluating, we're reading the AST
-	importVM := goimpl.MakeRawVM(opts.ImportPaths, opts.ExtCode, opts.TLACode, opts.MaxStack)
+	importVM := goimpl.MakeRawVM(opts.ImportPaths, opts.ExtCode, opts.TLACode, opts.MaxStack, false, false)
 
 	var hash string
 	if cache != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/impl.go b/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/impl.go
index 53e1a5869..5348169de 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/impl.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/impl.go
@@ -20,13 +20,14 @@ func (vm *JsonnetGoVM) EvaluateFile(filename string) (string, error) {
 }
 
 type JsonnetGoImplementation struct {
-	Path string
+	Path           string
+	DummyHelm      bool
+	DummyKustomize bool
 }
 
 func (i *JsonnetGoImplementation) MakeEvaluator(importPaths []string, extCode map[string]string, tlaCode map[string]string, maxStack int) types.JsonnetEvaluator {
 	return &JsonnetGoVM{
-		vm: MakeRawVM(importPaths, extCode, tlaCode, maxStack),
-
+		vm:   MakeRawVM(importPaths, extCode, tlaCode, maxStack, i.DummyHelm, i.DummyKustomize),
 		path: i.Path,
 	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/vm.go b/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/vm.go
index cafb79d7b..758667bac 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/vm.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/implementations/goimpl/vm.go
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import (
 // - extCode and tlaCode applied
 // - native functions registered
 // This is exposed because Go is used for advanced use cases, like finding transitive imports or linting.
-func MakeRawVM(importPaths []string, extCode map[string]string, tlaCode map[string]string, maxStack int) *jsonnet.VM {
+func MakeRawVM(importPaths []string, extCode map[string]string, tlaCode map[string]string, maxStack int, dummyHelm bool, dummyKustomize bool) *jsonnet.VM {
 	vm := jsonnet.MakeVM()
 	vm.Importer(newExtendedImporter(importPaths))
 
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ func MakeRawVM(importPaths []string, extCode map[string]string, tlaCode map[stri
 		vm.TLACode(k, v)
 	}
 
-	for _, nf := range native.Funcs() {
+	for _, nf := range native.Funcs(dummyHelm, dummyKustomize) {
 		vm.NativeFunction(nf)
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/imports.go b/pkg/jsonnet/imports.go
index 59c27171d..fd9925509 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/imports.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/imports.go
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ func TransitiveImports(dir string) ([]string, error) {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "resolving JPATH")
 	}
 
-	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM(jpath, nil, nil, 0)
+	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM(jpath, nil, nil, 0, false, false)
 	node, err := jsonnet.SnippetToAST(filepath.Base(entrypoint), string(sonnet))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "creating Jsonnet AST")
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/imports_test.go b/pkg/jsonnet/imports_test.go
index 24e0ccd26..00c8a76b5 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/imports_test.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/imports_test.go
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ func BenchmarkGetSnippetHash(b *testing.B) {
 			// Create a VM. It's important to reuse the same VM
 			// While there is a caching mechanism that normally shouldn't be shared in a benchmark iteration,
 			// it's useful to evaluate its impact here, because the caching will also improve the evaluation performance afterwards.
-			vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM([]string{tempDir}, nil, nil, 0)
+			vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM([]string{tempDir}, nil, nil, 0, false, false)
 			content, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(tempDir, "main.jsonnet"))
 			require.NoError(b, err)
 
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/lint.go b/pkg/jsonnet/lint.go
index 98989ad90..1fd659960 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/lint.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/lint.go
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ func lintWithRecover(file string) (buf bytes.Buffer, success bool) {
 		fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "got an error getting jpath for %s: %v\n\n", file, err)
 		return
 	}
-	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM(jpaths, nil, nil, 0)
+	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM(jpaths, nil, nil, 0, false, false)
 
 	failed := linter.LintSnippet(vm, &buf, []linter.Snippet{{FileName: file, Code: string(content)}})
 	return buf, !failed
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs.go b/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs.go
index d42fc33d3..22a80afb4 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs.go
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ import (
 
 // Funcs returns a slice of native Go functions that shall be available
 // from Jsonnet using `std.nativeFunc`
-func Funcs() []*jsonnet.NativeFunction {
-	return []*jsonnet.NativeFunction{
+func Funcs(dummyHelm, dummyKustomize bool) []*jsonnet.NativeFunction {
+	funcs := []*jsonnet.NativeFunction{
 		// Parse serialized data into dicts
 		parseJSON(),
 		parseYAML(),
@@ -36,10 +36,25 @@ func Funcs() []*jsonnet.NativeFunction {
 
 		// Hash functions
 		hashSha256(),
+	}
+
+	helmTemplate := helm.NativeFunc(helm.ExecHelm{})
+	if dummyHelm {
+		helmTemplate.Func = func(data []interface{}) (interface{}, error) {
+			return map[string]interface{}{}, nil
+		}
+	}
+	funcs = append(funcs, helmTemplate)
 
-		helm.NativeFunc(helm.ExecHelm{}),
-		kustomize.NativeFunc(kustomize.ExecKustomize{}),
+	kustomizeExec := kustomize.NativeFunc(kustomize.ExecKustomize{})
+	if dummyKustomize {
+		kustomizeExec.Func = func(data []interface{}) (interface{}, error) {
+			return map[string]interface{}{}, nil
+		}
 	}
+	funcs = append(funcs, kustomizeExec)
+
+	return funcs
 }
 
 // parseJSON wraps `json.Unmarshal` to convert a json string into a dict
diff --git a/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs_test.go b/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs_test.go
index afa13a8f3..b0385953a 100644
--- a/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs_test.go
+++ b/pkg/jsonnet/native/funcs_test.go
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import (
 
 // callNative calls a native function used by jsonnet VM.
 func callNative(name string, data []interface{}) (res interface{}, err error, callerr error) {
-	for _, fun := range Funcs() {
+	for _, fun := range Funcs(false, false) {
 		if fun.Name == name {
 			// Call the function
 			ret, err := fun.Func(data)
diff --git a/pkg/process/data_test.go b/pkg/process/data_test.go
index 89e8e7024..9a3f7ebf9 100644
--- a/pkg/process/data_test.go
+++ b/pkg/process/data_test.go
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ type testData struct {
 func loadFixture(name string) testData {
 	filename := filepath.Join("./testdata", name)
 
-	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM([]string{"./testdata"}, nil, nil, 0)
+	vm := goimpl.MakeRawVM([]string{"./testdata"}, nil, nil, 0, false, false)
 
 	data, err := vm.EvaluateFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/tanka/find.go b/pkg/tanka/find.go
index 1f7bbf591..693e13676 100644
--- a/pkg/tanka/find.go
+++ b/pkg/tanka/find.go
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ import (
 // FindOpts are optional arguments for FindEnvs
 type FindOpts struct {
 	JsonnetOpts
-	Selector    labels.Selector
-	Parallelism int
+	DummyHelm      bool
+	DummyKustomize bool
+	Selector       labels.Selector
+	Parallelism    int
 }
 
 // FindEnvs returns metadata of all environments recursively found in 'path'.
@@ -130,10 +132,15 @@ func findEnvsFromJsonnetFiles(jsonnetFiles []string, opts FindOpts) ([]*v1alpha1
 			// We need to create a copy of the opts for each goroutine because
 			// the content may be modified down the line:
 			jsonnetOpts := opts.JsonnetOpts.Clone()
+			listOpts := Opts{
+				JsonnetOpts:    jsonnetOpts,
+				DummyHelm:      opts.DummyHelm,
+				DummyKustomize: opts.DummyKustomize,
+			}
 
 			for jsonnetFile := range jsonnetFilesChan {
 				// try if this has envs
-				list, err := List(jsonnetFile, Opts{JsonnetOpts: jsonnetOpts})
+				list, err := List(jsonnetFile, listOpts)
 				if err != nil &&
 					// expected when looking for environments
 					!errors.As(err, &jpath.ErrorNoBase{}) &&
diff --git a/pkg/tanka/load.go b/pkg/tanka/load.go
index 0721c6f7b..7c4888aaf 100644
--- a/pkg/tanka/load.go
+++ b/pkg/tanka/load.go
@@ -125,7 +125,9 @@ func getJsonnetImplementation(path string, opts Opts) (types.JsonnetImplementati
 	switch opts.JsonnetImplementation {
 	case "go", "":
 		return &goimpl.JsonnetGoImplementation{
-			Path: path,
+			Path:           path,
+			DummyHelm:      opts.DummyHelm,
+			DummyKustomize: opts.DummyKustomize,
 		}, nil
 	default:
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown jsonnet implementation: %s", opts.JsonnetImplementation)
diff --git a/pkg/tanka/tanka.go b/pkg/tanka/tanka.go
index eee730ce7..843df71f0 100644
--- a/pkg/tanka/tanka.go
+++ b/pkg/tanka/tanka.go
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ type JsonnetOpts = jsonnet.Opts
 type Opts struct {
 	JsonnetOpts
 	JsonnetImplementation string
+	DummyHelm             bool
+	DummyKustomize        bool
 
 	// Filters are used to optionally select a subset of the resources
 	Filters process.Matchers