diff --git a/BUILDING.md b/BUILDING.md
index 9594fdfe4..327d0aaf8 100644
--- a/BUILDING.md
+++ b/BUILDING.md
@@ -43,6 +43,20 @@ You can move them in your global path with:
 sudo make install
 ```
 
+### Static binaries
+
+You can build static binaries by providing a few variables to `make`:
+
+```sudo
+make	EXTRA_FLAGS="-buildmode pie" \
+	EXTRA_LDFLAGS='-extldflags "-fno-PIC -static"' \
+	BUILDTAGS="static_build"
+```
+
+Note that
+ - static build is discouraged
+ - static containerd binary does not support plugins loading
+
 ## Via Docker Container
 
 ### Build containerd
diff --git a/plugin/plugin_go18.go b/plugin/plugin_go18.go
index d9101246e..eee0e3fdb 100644
--- a/plugin/plugin_go18.go
+++ b/plugin/plugin_go18.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// +build go1.8,!windows,amd64
+// +build go1.8,!windows,amd64,!static_build
 
 package plugin
 
diff --git a/plugin/plugin_other.go b/plugin/plugin_other.go
index 21a457040..180917af8 100644
--- a/plugin/plugin_other.go
+++ b/plugin/plugin_other.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// +build !go1.8 windows !amd64
+// +build !go1.8 windows !amd64 static_build
 
 package plugin