Point to a file?
E.g. `CONFIG_PATH=/etc/myapp/config.ini /opt/myapp`
That being said, I still use env vars and don't plan on stopping. I just haven't (yet?) seen any exploits or threat models relating to it that would keep me up at night.
Is that file more secure than the environment variables it's replacing? On Linux I think you can secure it to just your service with SELinux. Not sure about Windows