diff --git a/buildenv.sh b/buildenv.sh
index 8cd732e..e189a23 100644
--- a/buildenv.sh
+++ b/buildenv.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,18 @@
 
-# The compiler that will be used to build packages for the target system.
-# Change this to cross-compile, etc.
-CC=gcc
-CXX=g++
-export CC CXX
+# Value passed to ./configure for the --host argument. If empty, then
+# --host will not be passed. Set this if you want to cross-compile.
+BUILD_HOST=
+
+# An example of how to cross-compile to mingw32 for Windows builds:
+#BUILD_HOST=i586-mingw32msvc
+
+# If we're cross-compiling to a different platform, this should be set
+# to true. We initialize this based on whether BUILD_HOST has been set.
+if [ "$BUILD_HOST" != "" ]; then
+  IS_CROSS_COMPILE=true
+else
+  IS_CROSS_COMPILE=false
+fi
 
 # On OS X, we must set additional options: build 32-bit binaries, and the
 # target API version.
@@ -12,8 +21,13 @@ if [ $(uname) = "Darwin" ]; then
     CXX="g++ -m32"
     LDFLAGS="-lobjc ${LDFLAGS:-}"
     MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.7
-    export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
+    export CC CXX LDFLAGS MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
+
+    # Treat this like a cross-compile, since we're building 32-bit:
+    IS_CROSS_COMPILE=true
 else
+    # TODO: explain what this does
     LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath -Wl,$INSTALL_DIR/lib ${LDFLAGS:-}"
+    export LDFLAGS
 fi
 
diff --git a/chocpkg/chocpkg b/chocpkg/chocpkg
index 581deec..34780c1 100755
--- a/chocpkg/chocpkg
+++ b/chocpkg/chocpkg
@@ -127,6 +127,14 @@ fetch_package() {
 setup_build_environment() {
     if [ "$PACKAGE_TYPE" = "target" ]; then
         . "$CHOCPKG_ROOT/buildenv.sh"
+
+        # When cross-compiling, reconfigure pkg-config to not look for .pc
+        # files in the standard system directories; only in our own build
+        # directory. It may be that a library is installed on the system
+        # but that is useless if it is for the wrong architecture.
+        if $IS_CROSS_COMPILE; then
+            export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=
+        fi
     fi
 
     CPPFLAGS="-I$PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIR/include"
@@ -158,7 +166,13 @@ build_package() {
         error_exit "Failed pre-build setup step for $PACKAGE_NAME."
     fi
 
-    ./configure --prefix="$PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIR" $PACKAGE_CONFIGURE_OPTS || (
+    local host_opt=""
+    if [ "$PACKAGE_TYPE" = "target" ] && [ "$BUILD_HOST" != "" ]; then
+        host_opt="--host=$BUILD_HOST"
+    fi
+
+    ./configure --prefix="$PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIR" $host_opt \
+                $PACKAGE_CONFIGURE_OPTS || (
         error_exit "Failed to configure package $PACKAGE_NAME for build."
     )