diff --git a/constance/config.py b/constance/config.py
index 998c55c..c272802 100644
--- a/constance/config.py
+++ b/constance/config.py
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
+import os
 import redis
 
-from django.conf import settings
-from django.utils.importlib import import_module
-
 try:
     from cPickle import loads, dumps
 except ImportError:
     from pickle import loads, dumps
 
+def import_module(path):
+    package, module = path.rsplit('.', 1)
+    return getattr(__import__(package, None, None, [module]), module)
+
+settings = import_module(os.getenv('CONSTANCE_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'django.conf.settings'))
 
 
 class Config(object):
@@ -15,8 +18,7 @@ class Config(object):
     def __init__(self):
         super(Config, self).__setattr__('_prefix', getattr(settings, 'CONSTANCE_PREFIX', 'constance:'))
         try:
-            module, class_ = settings.CONSTANCE_CONNECTION_CLASS.rsplit('.')
-            super(Config, self).__setattr__('_rd', getattr(import_module(module), class_)())
+            super(Config, self).__setattr__('_rd', import_module(settings.CONSTANCE_CONNECTION_CLASS)())
         except AttributeError:
             super(Config, self).__setattr__('_rd', redis.Redis(**settings.CONSTANCE_CONNECTION))