diff --git a/cli/compose/convert/service.go b/cli/compose/convert/service.go
index 6935c61968..bb9255d581 100644
--- a/cli/compose/convert/service.go
+++ b/cli/compose/convert/service.go
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ func Service(
 				Hosts:           convertExtraHosts(service.ExtraHosts),
 				DNSConfig:       dnsConfig,
 				Healthcheck:     healthcheck,
-				Env:             sortStrings(convertEnvironment(service.Environment)),
+				Env:             convertEnvironment(service.Environment),
 				Labels:          AddStackLabel(namespace, service.Labels),
 				Dir:             service.WorkingDir,
 				User:            service.User,
@@ -199,11 +199,6 @@ func getPlacementPreference(preferences []composetypes.PlacementPreferences) []s
 	return result
 }
 
-func sortStrings(strs []string) []string {
-	sort.Strings(strs)
-	return strs
-}
-
 func convertServiceNetworks(
 	networks map[string]*composetypes.ServiceNetworkConfig,
 	networkConfigs networkMap,
@@ -596,6 +591,8 @@ func convertEndpointSpec(endpointMode string, source []composetypes.ServicePortC
 	}
 }
 
+// convertEnvironment converts key/value mappings to a slice, and sorts
+// the results.
 func convertEnvironment(source map[string]*string) []string {
 	var output []string
 
@@ -607,7 +604,7 @@ func convertEnvironment(source map[string]*string) []string {
 			output = append(output, name+"="+*value)
 		}
 	}
-
+	sort.Strings(output)
 	return output
 }
 
diff --git a/cli/compose/convert/service_test.go b/cli/compose/convert/service_test.go
index 7a23548e9e..4d48acc3ea 100644
--- a/cli/compose/convert/service_test.go
+++ b/cli/compose/convert/service_test.go
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ package convert
 import (
 	"context"
 	"os"
-	"sort"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -59,7 +58,6 @@ func TestConvertEnvironment(t *testing.T) {
 		"key": strPtr("value"),
 	}
 	env := convertEnvironment(source)
-	sort.Strings(env)
 	assert.Check(t, is.DeepEqual([]string{"foo=bar", "key=value"}, env))
 }