diff --git a/config/webpack.config.js b/config/webpack.config.js
index 51a51e051a29b79a1edc1af3ea99f822290647c6..2d1a16a18ddeb71c5f5637dd688795dff0934073 100644
--- a/config/webpack.config.js
+++ b/config/webpack.config.js
@@ -54,10 +54,7 @@ var config = {
         exclude: /(node_modules|vendor\/assets)/,
         loader: 'babel-loader',
         query: {
-          // 'use strict' was broken in sprockets-es6 due to sprockets concatination method.
-          // many es5 strict errors which were never caught ended up in our es6 assets as a result.
-          // this hack is necessary until they can be fixed.
-          blacklist: ['useStrict']
+          presets: ['es2015', 'stage-2']
         }
       },
       {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index a25e09e4cf2f4aad2cc76e30ebff2d9a46e5f6f4..7f1c8dd6fffbc4cbc61cad1fba4a79db2a2fa9d6 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -11,9 +11,10 @@
     "webpack-prod": "NODE_ENV=production npm run webpack"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "babel": "^5.8.38",
-    "babel-core": "^5.8.38",
-    "babel-loader": "^5.4.2",
+    "babel-core": "^6.22.1",
+    "babel-loader": "^6.2.10",
+    "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.22.0",
+    "babel-preset-stage-2": "^6.22.0",
     "bootstrap-sass": "3.3.6",
     "compression-webpack-plugin": "^0.3.2",
     "d3": "3.5.11",