It's not possible to use an environment variable as the project key. If you try to do it I, the following exception is shown when saving the project configuration:

javax.servlet.ServletException: quality.gates.jenkins.plugin.QGException: Environment variable with name 'ROJECT_KE' does not exist.
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:796)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:876)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$5.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:233)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:58)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:746)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:876)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$5.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:233)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:58)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:746)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:876)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:649)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.service(Stapler.java:238)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:812)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1669)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:135)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.ssegateway.Endpoint$SSEListenChannelFilter.doFilter(Endpoint.java:206)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:132)
..........