To effectively manage environment variables, it is essential to minimize default values and ensure that parameters are set as environment variables. This can prevent unexpected behavior or false positives. Additionally, keeping configuration clean by deleting dead lines of code and leaving comments for obscure sections can improve maintainability. Maintaining an architecture schema using tools like asciiflow.com can also help understand the dependencies of an application. Humanitec provides a platform that offers dynamic environment variables, managed services, and easy rollback capabilities to manage environment variables efficiently. By following these best practices and utilizing tools like Humanitec, teams can avoid common struggles such as fear of breaking things, loss of control, and difficulty in achieving high-level views of the system.