diff --git a/smtk/pybind11/__init__.py b/smtk/pybind11/__init__.py
index 4af6e7bfcd22aeea1e5123971efcba1e7b8c5f2e..541ba827e2a9635c8cbb79c0f5794c192f8b2a8d 100644
--- a/smtk/pybind11/__init__.py
+++ b/smtk/pybind11/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
 #
 #=============================================================================
 
+# For Windows builds, we must initialize our python interpreter with
+# "Py_NoSiteFlag" enabled. We therefore import it here instead. Since this
+# module is usually imported at python's initialization, this should have no
+# effect when another python implementation imports smtk.
+import site
+
 __all__ = ('common', 'attribute', 'model',
            'mesh', 'io', 'bridge', 'simulation')