diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f14115ead621583c125dd469215cb4172aa724ba..61bc9fd8e3ba86c2e78cad6bed3ad62eab3cda2e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -64,3 +64,26 @@ To install the development version:
 ```
 conda install -c usgs-astrogeology/label/dev plio
 ```
+
+Building documentation
+======================
+
+Create the `plio` conda environment:
+
+```
+conda env create -f environment.yml
+```
+
+Activate the conda environment:
+
+```
+conda activate plio
+```
+
+Go into the `docs` directory and build the sphinx docs with:
+
+```
+sphinx-build -b html . public
+```
+
+This outputs the generated documentation into `docs/public` where you can open `public/index.html` in a browser to view PLIO docs locally. 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 233b9ccab294e21cdb5acfbfb05c83e43aa36581..0af6ed890058f3f124a677fd1225196577f965af 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ dependencies:
   - pytest-cov 
   - coveralls 
   - nbsphinx
+  - sphinx=6.2.1