diff --git a/cuda-flags.file b/cuda-flags.file
index 2e4b869e2e5..4767f6c9940 100644
--- a/cuda-flags.file
+++ b/cuda-flags.file
@@ -15,9 +15,11 @@
 # LLVM style for listing the supported CUDA compute architectures
 %define llvm_cuda_arch %(echo $(for ARCH in %cuda_arch; do echo "$ARCH"; done) | sed -e"s/ /,/g")
 
+# C++ standard to use for building host and device code with nvcc
+%define nvcc_stdcxx -std=c++17
 
-# enable C++17, and generate optimised code
-%define cuda_flags_0 -std=c++17 -O3
+# generate optimised code
+%define cuda_flags_0 -O3
 
 # generate debugging information for device code
 %define cuda_flags_1 --generate-line-info --source-in-ptx
@@ -38,4 +40,4 @@
 %define cuda_flags_6 --cudart shared
 
 # collect all CUDA flags
-%define cuda_flags %{cuda_flags_0} %{cuda_flags_1} %{cuda_flags_2} %{cuda_flags_3} %{cuda_flags_4} %{cuda_flags_5} %{cuda_flags_6}
+%define nvcc_cuda_flags %{nvcc_stdcxx} %{cuda_flags_0} %{cuda_flags_1} %{cuda_flags_2} %{cuda_flags_3} %{cuda_flags_4} %{cuda_flags_5} %{cuda_flags_6}
diff --git a/cuda-toolfile.spec b/cuda-toolfile.spec
index f3099e50ea1..a3efd8f7917 100644
--- a/cuda-toolfile.spec
+++ b/cuda-toolfile.spec
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Requires: cuda
 
 %install
 ## INCLUDE cuda-flags
-# defines cuda_flags
+# defines nvcc_cuda_flags and nvcc_stdcxx
 
 mkdir -p %{i}/etc/scram.d
 cat << \EOF_TOOLFILE >%{i}/etc/scram.d/cuda-stubs.xml
@@ -36,10 +36,10 @@ cat << \EOF_TOOLFILE >%{i}/etc/scram.d/cuda.xml
     <environment name="LIBDIR"    default="$CUDA_BASE/lib64"/>
     <environment name="INCLUDE"   default="$CUDA_BASE/include"/>
   </client>
-  <flags CUDA_FLAGS="%{cuda_flags}"/>
+  <flags CUDA_FLAGS="%{nvcc_cuda_flags}"/>
   <flags CUDA_HOST_REM_CXXFLAGS="-std=%"/>
   <flags CUDA_HOST_REM_CXXFLAGS="%potentially-evaluated-expression"/>
-  <flags CUDA_HOST_CXXFLAGS="-std=c++17"/>
+  <flags CUDA_HOST_CXXFLAGS="%{nvcc_stdcxx}"/>
   <lib name="cudadevrt" type="cuda"/>
   <runtime name="PATH" value="$CUDA_BASE/bin" type="path"/>
 </tool>
diff --git a/cupla.spec b/cupla.spec
index caf34ba280d..b23dbb9fe2b 100644
--- a/cupla.spec
+++ b/cupla.spec
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Requires: tbb
 
 %build
 ## INCLUDE cuda-flags
-# defines cuda_flags
+# defines nvcc_cuda_flags and nvcc_stdcxx
 
 mkdir build lib
 
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ mkdir build lib
 rm -rf alpaka
 
 CXXFLAGS="-DALPAKA_DEBUG=0 -I$CUDA_ROOT/include -I$TBB_ROOT/include -I$BOOST_ROOT/include -I$ALPAKA_ROOT/include -Iinclude"
-HOST_FLAGS="-std=c++17 -O2 -pthread -fPIC -Wall -Wextra"
-NVCC_FLAGS="%{cuda_flags}"
+HOST_FLAGS="%{nvcc_stdcxx} -O2 -pthread -fPIC -Wall -Wextra"
+NVCC_FLAGS="%{nvcc_cuda_flags}"
 FILES=$(find src -type f -name *.cpp)
 
 # build the serial CPU backend